Home » Archives » "Attacks against U.S. on the rise"

Attacks against U.S. on the rise

Apr- 3-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

The article below is for subscribers only, but the link I used seemed to work fine.

[Link to Full Article]
By Vincent J. Schodolski
Tribune correspondent

MOSUL, Iraq -- There was a time not long ago when U.S. officials in Iraq pointed to this northern city as an oasis of calm and cooperation amid the violence and chaos in other parts of the country.

When U.S. forces arrived here a year ago, they were met with warm welcomes. But things started to deteriorate nine months later and hit a low last month, when 124 attacks were carried out against U.S. soldiers and civilian targets and a daring assassination attempt was made on the life of Nesreen Mustafa Sidiq Berwari, the newly appointed minister of public works.

The third-largest city in Iraq, Mosul has an urban area the size of Dallas and a potentially explosive population mix composed of Arabs, Turkmens, Kurds and Assyrians. It also was a stronghold for the Sunnis aligned with Saddam Hussein, and reportedly more than 1,000 former high-ranking officers live in and around Mosul. [...]

"We think we are getting a lot of the triggermen," said Lt. Col. Joseph Piek, a spokesman for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which arrived in the Mosul area earlier this year. "We need to get to the leadership of these groups."

So far most of the clues point to a mixture of groups and motives behind the attacks.

"Maybe some terrorists or loyalists for the former regime pay these people to do the violence," said Sabry Bamarny, a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party and a coordinator between Kurdish supporters of his party and coalition forces in the Mosul area.

The list of suspects includes former members of Hussein's Baath Party and the high-ranking officers in the now disbanded Iraqi army.

But many of those involved in the battle against insurgents here suggested that foreign intelligence services were also involved in plotting and encouraging attacks on coalition forces. Most frequently mentioned were Iran and Syria.


Advertisements