IRAQ: US AND IRAQI SECURITY FORCES START MILITARY OPERATIONS IN MOSUL/ PIPLEINE FIRE NEAR KIRKUK

Record ID: 584945

  • Title: IRAQ: US AND IRAQI SECURITY FORCES START MILITARY OPERATIONS IN MOSUL/ PIPLEINE FIRE NEAR KIRKUK
  • Date: 16th November 2004
  • Summary: (W5) MOSUL, IRAQ (NOVEMBER 16, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF VIEW FROM WINDOW ONTO STREET OUTSIDE POLICE STATION 0.07 2. WIDE OF ANOTHER OF AN EMPTY STREET AND CLOSED SHOPS (AUDIO FIRING) 0.15 3. WIDE OF STREET 0.28 4. VARIOUS OF CARS DRIVING IN RAIN ON STREETS 0.43 5. WIDE OF STREET WITHJ MOSQUE 0.51 (W5) KIRKUK, IRAQ (NOVEMBER 16, 2004) (REUTERS) 6. VARIOUS OF FLAMES FROM RUPTURED OIL PIPELINE WEST OF KIRKUK 1.08 7. LV OF PIPELINE FIRE 1.16 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st December 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSUL AND KIRKUK, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA6JIFVJCZ4YGH598NH9RLPK794
  • Story Text: U.S. and Iraqi security forces started operations to
    flush out insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.



    U.S. and Iraqi forces launched operations in
    Mosul on Tuesday (November 16, 2004) to rid Iraq's third largest
    city of groups of insurgents who have rampaged through
    several neighbourhoods for the past six days.

    "Offensive operations have begun on the western side of
    the river to clear out final pockets of insurgent
    fighting," said Captain Angela Bowman, spokeswoman for
    U.S. forces in the north.

    "It's a significant operation to secure police stations
    in the area and make sure they can be put to use again."
    Groups of up to 50 militants stormed through Mosul, on
    the banks of the Tigris river in the far north of Iraq,
    last week, attacking police stations. They looted the
    stations of weapons, flak jackets and vehicles, and then
    set them ablaze.

    Nine of Mosul's 33 police stations were overrun and
    some were briefly held by insurgents. In a gun battle
    lasting several hours, U.S. and Iraqi forces managed to
    take back one of the police stations on Sunday.

    U.S. forces say none of the police stations are now
    in rebel hands, but several of them have been abandoned and
    need to be properly secured. During the fighting, many
    Iraqi police deserted, and in some cases joined militants,
    witnesses said.

    The Iraqi government fired Mosul's police chief.

    Bowman said a few hundred U.S. troops, backed by Iraqi
    national guards and a unit of police special commandos
    would be involved in Tuesday's operation.

    She said a brigade of U.S. troops, around 5,000 men
    -- and a brigade of Iraqi national guards had been assigned
    to the operation, but only a fraction of those were being
    used.

    Mosul has seen frequent outbreaks of violence over
    the past year, but residents said the last week was the
    worst for insurgency since the end of the war last year.

    Flows through Iraq's northern oil export pipeline
    have fallen to 200,000 barrels per day after a series of
    sabotage attacks and could remain below capacity for over a
    month, an oil official said on Tuesday.

    Iraq was pumping about 500,000 bpd through the
    northern pipeline to Turkey's Ceyhan port this month but
    that fell to about 300,000 bpd when oil was diverted for
    domestic use after attacks on the domestic network.

    Sabotage attacks on five oil wells and a pumping
    station over the past three days have stopped production at
    the Khabbaz oilfield near the northern Iraqi city of
    Kirkuk, which feeds the main export pipeline.

    Each well at the Khabbaz field was producing
    10,000-15,000 bpd and the storage facility was also
    damaged, the oficial said.

    Oil has also been diverted for domestic use after a sabotage
    attack on a domestic pipeline south of Mosul
    transporting oil from the Ain Zala field.

    Sabotage against oil facilities in the north has
    intensified as U.S. forces mounted an offensive to retake
    the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja from insurgents.




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