Iraqis announce offensive in Mosul

AP/Houston Chronicle:

Iraq's prime minister announced today that the government was launching a major offensive against al-Qaida in the northern city of Mosul after two days of deadly bombings that killed nearly 40 people.

He promised the fight "will be decisive."

The announcement by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki came after warnings by the U.S. military that Mosul was the last major city where al-Qaida maintains a strong presence after largely being driven from Baghdad and other major population centers.

Al-Maliki said the government was sending troops to Mosul and an operations room had been established to fight the insurgents.

"Today, the troops have moved to Mosul ... and the fight there will be decisive," al-Maliki said during an address in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

He did not say how many troops were being sent or provide more details in his wide-ranging speech, an apparent attempt to show his beleaguered administration was assuming control of the situation in Mosul with the U.S. military in the background.

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The recent violence in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, began Wednesday when an abandoned apartment building believed to be used as a bomb-making factory exploded after the Iraqi army arrived to investigate tips about a weapons cache.

At least 34 people were killed and 224 wounded when the blast tore through surrounding houses in the Zanjili neighborhood, a poverty-ridden district on the west bank of the Tigris River.

Residents reportedly back al-Qaida as a firewall against Kurdish influence in the city and the ineffective provincial government.

A suicide bomber then killed a police chief and two other officers Thursday as they toured the devastation from the previous day. Residents with insurgent sympathies taunted the chief moments before the attack.

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Al-Qaida and its supporters would find themselves without a major base of operations if ousted from Mosul, which occupies transport crossroads between Baghdad, Syria and other points.

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That is probably why Maliki says the fight will be decisive. Mosul has been largely understaffed by both the Iraqis and the US. Until now it has not had a real surge in forces. That appears about to change. We need to raise the force to space ratio and start working with the local people in rooting out the al Qaeda infestation.

The story reports on another failed attempt to murder a senior aide of Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Karbala. This appears to be a desperate attempt to restart sectarian violence. In fact it would only up the anger toward al Qaeda by everyone in Iraq. It is how they got to their current state of disarray.

Bill Roggio has more on the action in Mosul.