MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- Grenades lie unattended next to a bazaar in the western part of the city. Garbage bags are searched daily for bombs. At a sprawling sheep market, Iraqi soldiers are careful not to kick over rocks for fear of setting off hidden explosives.War has ebbed in most parts of Iraq, but not in Mosul, the third-largest city and al-Qaida's last stronghold in the fragile new democracy. And time is running out on the around-the-clock U.S. military patrols of Mosul. U.S. troops must vacate cities by June 30 under an agreement with the Iraqis, and President Barack Obama is ending all American combat operations after August 2010.
The Iraqi security forces are not sure they'll be ready.
"If you don't have the Americans, this is not going to be good," said an Iraqi army captain who gave his name only as Ahmed to protect his family. "I cannot take care of it."
Even so, "some people don't like coalition forces here," Ahmed added as his soldiers joined U.S. troops at the sheep market last week. "Iraqi people will come together, and it will be better."
Yesterday, gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint in the western New Mosul neighborhood, killing two police officers and wounding a civilian.
Explosives are part of the daily cacophony in Mosul; the U.S. Army reported six bombs either found or detonated in the city on Thursday and Friday; one wounded an Iraqi soldier. Iraqi security forces also pose a threat: three U.S. soldiers have been killed in Mosul since November by gunmen wearing Iraqi army or police uniforms.
The problems in Mosul "can put us off track and cause violence to really re-ignite in a greater way," Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq, told reporters yesterday.
But the military's main military focus in Mosul is al-Qaida, where efforts to obliterate the terrorist group and other Sunni militants have failed over the years.