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Iraq Insurgent Push in North Waning

Apr-11-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - The command-center call crackles out of a radioman's set, sending U.S. soldiers racing for their Humvees: A suspected roadside bomb concealed in a green sandbag is in the streets of Iraq's main northern city and three cars filled with gunmen are circling nearby.

The troops speed to the site with guns trained on Mosul's traffic - a typical day's work for U.S. soldiers battling militants who have launched what officers call a northern front far from Iraq's restive, central Sunni Triangle.

Mosul - a city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad that's an ethnic patchwork of Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Christians and other communities - was largely calm early last year after offering little resistance during the U.S.-led March 2003 invasion.

But in November, militants ran police out of town and unleashed a wave of pre-election bombings and attacks U.S. officers now say they're quelling with the help of Iraqi security forces.

``Were (the insurgents) always here? Yes. They were just waiting for their opportunity in Mosul, which was a quiet place for them to hide,'' says Col. Robert B. Brown, who is helping lead the fight in Nineveh province, which includes Mosul. ``In November, the north became a main effort for the enemy.'' [...]

Since November, U.S. forces have killed at least 350 militants in the province, including 50 foreigners from Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, says Brown, 45, of Fort Lewis, Wash., where his 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division unit is based.

Brown says attacks have dropped in recent weeks because the populace is coming around against the insurgents, with tips to security forces running at about 250 a week.

``The public is off the fence,'' he says. ``They're now on the side of the new Iraqi government and the coalition forces. And that's because of the elections.

``Does that mean the insurgents will roll over and give up? No way. They're ruthless.''

Still, he says, soldiers have the northern insurgency ``on the ropes.''

Brown says his troops face perhaps 500 hard-core fighters and thousands of part-time militants across the province - supported by Islamic radicals in neighboring Syria and Iran.


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