Mohammed has ordered at least 3,500 troops and police to Mosul in an
effort to destroy the Al Qaida presence, Middle East Newsline reported. The U.S. military has contributed
attack helicopters, armored vehicles and special forces to the operation.
But Mohammed said the Iraq Army, which established a command and control
center in Mosul, was not prepared for a major assault. The defense minister
criticized army deployment and the absence of sustained operations by the
2nd Brigade.
"The forces are scattered," Mohammed said. "We are working to unify the
command. The military units are distributed in Mosul in a way that means
they haven't studied the area."
Scores of people have been killed over the last week in Al Qaida suicide
strikes around Mosul. The bloodiest attack was on Jan. 23 in which at least
60 people were killed when a cache of munitions stored by Al Qaida was
detonated. On the following day, a suicide bomber killed Nineveh police
chief Brig. Gen. Salah Al Jabouri.
The U.S. military, with 5,000 troops in Nineveh, has targeted the Al
Qaida presence in Operation Phantom Phoenix, launched on Jan. 8. But on Jan.
28, a U.S. Army convoy was ambushed in Mosul and five soldiers were killed.
So far, at least 36 U.S. soldiers were killed in January in Iraq, a more
than 50 percent increase from December 2007.