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Iraqi police and militants battle in mosul { August 4 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38886-2004Aug4.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38886-2004Aug4.html
Iraqi Police and Militants Battle in Mosul
Four Jordanian, Two Turkish Hostages Freed in Iraq
By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 4, 2004; 2:32 PM
BAGHDAD, Aug. 4--Clashes between Iraqi police and masked insurgents broke out on the streets of Mosul in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing 12 people, including Iraqi security forces.
The gun-toting insurgents dodged and sprinted through the Yarmouq and New Mosul districts, attacking a police station and the home of Iraq's interim president, Ghazi Yawar, according to the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya satellite television networks. It was not clear how many of the dead were Iraqi police and National Guardsmen.
At the time of the attack, Yawar was in Baghdad addressing reporters about a proposed Islamic force to help stabilize Iraq.
In other developments, four Jordanian hostages were freed after gunmen stormed the hide-out of their captors in Fallujah, the men said in interviews upon their return to Baghdad. Two Turkish hostages also were released after their employers agreed to stop trucking goods into Iraq.
Two Marines were killed and four wounded in attacks near Al Qaim in western Iraq near the border with Syria Wednesday. According to military officials, one Marine was killed by a roadside bomb as he and other members of a patrol investigated reports of a previous explosion near an Iraqi police checkpoint. The Marine, a member of the Third Battalion of the Seventh Marine Regiment, was evacuated quickly by helicopter, but died soon thereafter.
Four others Marines were wounded, but their injuries were not life threatening, according to a spokesman in Al Qaim.
Meanwhile, in the city of Tall Afar just north of Mosul, U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division killed one insurgent and captured three others after finding them driving suspiciously near a major intersection, the U.S. military said.
After the driver attempted to flee, the soldiers rammed the car with a military vehicle, killing one of the occupants. The soldiers found grenade launchers, a mortar tube, hand grenades, a machine gun and rifles in the vehicle.
In Tikrit, further south, the 1st Infantry Division captured three suspected members of a "mortar cell," according a military statement, which provided no further details.
Back in the capital, Yawar said Muslim troops should supplement the U.S.-led security forces already in Iraq, not replace them as some senior Saudi Arabia officials have suggested.
"Why should we bring forces as alternative to other forces?" Yawar said. "It is not acceptable to replace a [soldier's] boot with another," he said. "Many of the effective Islamic countries are rejecting coming here.
"With my due respect to some countries, why should I replace someone whom I suffered to get him learn [rules of the land' here with another to start learning again. This is not acceptable," he said.
Yawar also demanded that participating countries send sizable troops and not merely symbolic contingents of forces.
He criticized the Philippines for withdrawing its 51 troops last month in response to the demands of militants who had taken a Filipino truck driver hostage. The man was released unharmed.
Troops sent by other countries "should not be symbolic in number as if they are in a carnival, 40 or 50," Yawar said. "And whenever they have any trouble they return home."
More than 70 foreigners have been taken hostage since this spring. Most have been released, but a kidnapped Turkish truck driver was executed Monday by his captors, who call themselves that Monotheism and Jihad Group. The group has asserted responsibility for the beheadings of American businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean translator Kim Sun Il and Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov.
Within moments of the news of his death, the association representing Turkey's trucking industry announced it was halting deliveries to the U.S. military and other American clients in Iraq. Cahit Soysal, who heads the International Transportation Association, said the suspension would affect 200 to 300 trucks daily.
The association did not say how long the strike would last.
The U.S. military's main supplier, KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., said Wednesday that its convoys were running as scheduled.
"While our ability to continue to receive goods from Turkey may be limited by the strike, we do not expect there will be significant interruptions to operations," said Stephanie Price, KBR's Middle East spokeswoman. "If the strike continues, KBR may have to assess alternate supply plans for the impacted locations. That is not the case today."
Correspondent Doug Struck contributed to this report from Al Qaim.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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