Iraqi police appear to have lost control of the city of Mosul. The city, Iraq�s third largest, is in a state of chaos with armed gangs roaming the
streets armed with automatic weapons and RPG�s. In response, the interim Iraqi government has dismissed the Police Chief and has sent in
reinforcements to quell the uprising. United States officials suspect that the uprising is in response to the recent attack on Fallujah.
UPDATE: Army Unit Diverted From Fallujah to Mosul
Due to unrest, the army is diverting the unit to deal with the situation.
FALLUJAH, Iraq - The U.S. Army has diverted an infantry battalion from the fighting in Fallujah and sent them back to Mosul after an uprising there by
insurgents, U.S. military officials said Saturday.
The 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 25th Infantry Division, was ordered back to Mosul late Thursday after militants attacked
bridges, police stations and government buildings in the city, officials said.
The battalion, which is now part of the Stryker Brigade of Task Force Olympia, was already back in the Mosul area.
Unit Diverted
story.news.yahoo.com
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government rushed reinforcements Friday to the country's third-largest city, Mosul, seeking to quell a deadly militant
uprising that U.S. officials suspected may be in support of the resistance in Fallujah � now said to be under 80 percent U.S. control.
Police in Mosul largely disappeared from the streets, residents reported, and gangs of armed men brandishing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled
grenade launchers roamed the city, 225 miles north of Baghdad. Responding to the crisis, Iraqi authorities dismissed Mosul's police chief after local
officials reported that officers were abandoning their stations to militants without firing a shot.
Elsewhere, insurgents shot down a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter near Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad, wounding three crew members, the
military said. It was the third downed helicopter this week after two Marine Super Cobras succumbed to ground fire in the Fallujah operation.
In Fallujah, U.S. troops pushed insurgents into a narrow corner in the southern end of the city after a four-day assault that has claimed 22 American
lives and wounded about 170 others. An estimated 600 insurgents have died, according to the military.
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The U.S. is going to have to get control of the cities and the countryside if it hopes to have the election in Iraq as scheduled. This goes directly
back to Rumsfelds insistence that we have enough troops on the ground which we clearly do not. We need to put more troops on the ground and keep
control of all the cities otherwise we simply seem to be moving them from one city to another. How many of the militants fled Fallujah prior to the
invasion there?
[edit on 11/13/04 by FredT]
[edit on 11/13/04 by FredT]