IRAQ: THIRD CITY MOSUL FALLS TO ADVANCING U.S. FORCES AND DESCENDS INTO ANARCHY

Record ID: 860582

  • Title: IRAQ: THIRD CITY MOSUL FALLS TO ADVANCING U.S. FORCES AND DESCENDS INTO ANARCHY
  • Date: 3rd August 2003
  • Summary: (EU) MOSUL, IRAQ (APRIL 11, 2003) (REUTERS) GV/LV MOSUL BURNING
  • Embargoed: 18th August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSUL, IRAQ
  • City:
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime,War / Fighting,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4NK5Y4BJMG33O6MQ9MOIGVAVC
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Iraq's third city Mosul fell to advancing U.S. forces and Kurdish fighters apparently without a fight, and within hours descended into anarchy.
    U.S. troops entered Mosul later in the day on Friday (April 11, 2003) after the city after support for Saddam Hussein collapsed in the north. Looters swooped on public and other buildings in the mainly Arab city, following a pattern that accompanied the fall of the capital Baghdad and other centres across the country.
    Mosul, a city of more than one million people 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, is a focus of historic rivalry between Arabs and Kurds.
    As law and order broke down with schools and other public buildings ransacked, stripped bare or set on fire, there was little sign of U.S. soldiers or of Kurdish peshmerga fighters in the centre of the city.
    Professors at a looted university in Mosul issued a plea through the Arabic satellite television al-Jazeera for Kurdish and U.S.-led forces to establish order in the city.
    Things appeared to be calmer in the city when the U.S.
    troops travelled in by convoy.
    The U.S. military said the entire Iraqi 5th Corps surrendered in Mosul.
    Reuters Television producer Soheil Afdjei said Mosul was initially calm, with lots of people on the streets.
    He watched as jubilant Iraqis, chanting anti-Saddam slogans, entered a branch of the Bank of Iraq and emerged with bundles of Iraqi dinars bearing Saddam's face that some tore to shreds. Others gathered up the scattered notes and made off with them.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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