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Rebels Attack in Central Iraq and the North

Nov-16-2004 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

The following article contains a brief update on Mosul.

[Link to Full Article]
By EDWARD WONG and JAMES GLANZ

Overnight, insurgents attacked an oil storage tank in the north and set fire to four oil wells. In Mosul, torn by a daring revolt that began last week, guerrillas tried ramming an American patrol and a checkpoint with suicide car bombs, wounding at least five soldiers. The Iraqi interior minister, Falah al-Naqib, said he expected the rebels to mount more ambitious strikes. [...]

Other fighters attacked an oil storage tank by the export pipeline leading from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

The bombing of the storage tank took place southwest of Mosul, where American and Iraqi forces are struggling to recover from a revolt that began Thursday, when insurgents overran a half dozen police stations and made off with weapons, body armor and squad cars. Hundreds of policemen fled. At least seven policemen and 30 fighters have been killed in recent clashes, said Mr. Naqib, the interior minister.

Insurgents driving two car bombs attacked an American patrol on the road to Tal Afar, a guerrilla stronghold west of Mosul, said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, a spokesman for Task Force Olympia, the units charged with controlling northern Iraq. The first car bomb missed a light-armored Stryker vehicle and detonated, wounding five soldiers. The second was destroyed by gunfire.

Guerrillas have begun using tandem suicide car bombs recently, Colonel Hastings said. The number of car bombs in Mosul has at least doubled during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which ends on Tuesday, Colonel Hastings said.

Other clashes erupted around Mosul. A bomb exploded beneath a police car at the Zahoor police station, one of the stations looted and burned by rebels on Thursday.

But the violence had calmed since then, and children could be seen playing in some parks.

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