Baghdad, October 03: Iraqi forces in Mosul have detained more than 150 suspected Sunni insurgents during an offensive in the country’s last major extremist stronghold.
The crackdown is the latest attempt to break insurgent strength in the northern city — and the first wide-ranging operation since the U.S. withdrew combat forces from cities in June. While each sweep into Mosul over the past years has produced scores of arrests, they apparently have failed to significantly weaken the networks of al-Qaida in Iraq and other groups.
The Iraqi security official said raids began earlier this week and are expected to wrap up Saturday. So far, the detained suspects include alleged senior insurgent commanders and financiers, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
U.S. forces took part in the offensive, but mostly in a support role, the official said. The U.S. military did not immediately comment on the reported Mosul push.
Mosul has remained one of the lingering worries for the Pentagon as they prepare to end combat operations next August. Insurgents have resisted a series of assaults by Iraqi and American troops and continue to stage attacks from Mosul bases.
In February, a joint U.S.-Iraqi campaign into Mosul took more than 80 suspects, but appeared to make little headway against insurgents’ ability to strike. The offensive came more than a year after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed to launched the “decisive” battle against extremists in Iraq’s third-largest city.
On Friday — in a village south of Mosul — a bomb smuggled into a village mosque killed a prayer leader who also worked as a police officer, an official said.
The explosives were hidden under a platform where Narjis Shiwash was overseeing prayers in Namrood, a mostly Sunni village about 18 miles (30 kilometers) south of Mosul. Three worshippers were injured, said the police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
The mosque was only lightly guarded and had none of the additional security cordons placed around many larger places of worship around Iraq during the height of sectarian bloodshed several years ago.
There were no immediate arrests, but suspicion fell on groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq.
The Mosul area is considered the last major base for Sunni insurgents, who have targeted tribal leaders and others who assist security forces. On Sept. 25, at least 11 Iraqi soldiers were killed just outside Mosul.
In Baghdad, an American soldier was killed in a mortar attack at a sprawling base on the western edge of the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said.
The Multi-National Corps-Iraq soldier was killed Thursday in what is at least the second attack in two weeks at Camp Liberty, part of a group of American bases that make up the American headquarters in Iraq known as Camp Victory.
A rocket struck Camp Liberty last week but caused no casualties, said Army Lt. Col. David Patterson, a military spokesman.
The name of the soldier was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the military said in a statement.
The death raised to at least 4,348 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The number of troops killed in combat has dropped dramatically since 2007 as violence has declined sharply.
With the decline in violence, the U.S. has accelerated its withdrawal from Iraq. Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander in Iraq, has said 4,000 troops will be sent home in October ahead of schedule.
Under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact, the U.S. pulled out of Iraq’s cities on June 30. President Barack Obama has ordered all combat troops out of the country by Aug. 31, 2010, leaving up to 50,000 troops in advising roles. All troops would withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011, under the pact.
In a sign of possible political tensions before January’s parliamentary elections, a prominent Shiite parliament member claimed that security agents linked to Prime Minister al-Maliki searched his home in Baghdad’s protected Green Zone. The lawmaker, Qassim Dawood, said nothing was taken, but complained that it appeared to be an act of intimidation and called for an investigation.
There was no immediate comment from officials in al-Maliki’s government.
Dawood is part of a Shiite bloc led by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest Shiite political group in Iraq. On Thursday, al-Maliki announced his own rival Shiite-led political coalition for the Jan. 16 vote that includes Sunnis and other groups from around Iraq.
–Agencies