Patrick Cockburn reports from Mosul: There has been a mounting number of clashes between predominantly Arab Iraqi army units and the Kurdish peshmerga forces along a 260-mile line that stretches diagonally across the northern third of Iraq, from Sinjar to Khanaqin in the south. The tensions underpinning the conflict have always attracted less international attention [...]
Archive for the ‘Mosul’ Category
Iraq: The Next War
Posted in Iraq, Kurds, Mosul on February 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Afghanistan: Lessons from Mosul
Posted in Iraq, Mosul on February 20, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I have no idea whether the strategic reviews ordered by Obama will check the free fall in Afghanistan, but here’s a suggestion: Instead of trying to import the counterinsurgency tactics it employed successfully in Iraq, the U.S. military should take a hard look at where it failed. In a word: Mosul. After years of much-touted [...]
Iraq: Abandoning Mosul
Posted in Iraq, Mosul on December 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Despite years of military offensives, Mosul remains a running sore, and there is no end in sight to the bloodshed. Unfortunately, the city’s troubles will only get worse, come 2009. The 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, the American unit responsible for bringing a semblance of order to the chaotic metropolis, will soon end its 15-month deployment, [...]
Iraq: Stepping Aside While Mosul Burns
Posted in Iraq, Mosul on October 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Seven months after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s much-vaunted offensive to clear Mosul of insurgents, the killing continues. An excellent piece by Sam Dagher in today’s New York Times predicts things will get even worse, as the Kurds and Arabs vie for power in the devastated city (see this blog’s header). Interestingly, the U.S. military has [...]
Mosul: SNAFU
Posted in Iraq, ISF, Mosul on June 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Juan Cole has an update: Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that the security situation has taken a dramatic turn for the worse in Mosul. Yesterday a bombing killed 2 and wounded 90 persons, and a municipal leader was assassinated; in addition, a roadside bombing killed 3 US troops and their interpreter. An informed source told the [...]
Mosul and the State of the Insurgency
Posted in COIN, Iraq, Mosul on June 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Just a short note: the June issue of CTC Sentinel is chock-full of goodies, including what is probably the best analysis to date on the insurgency in Mosul.
Mosul: Life is like it used to be
Posted in Iraq, Mosul on June 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A month after the headline-grabbin’, insurgent-nabbin’ Operation Lion’s Roar, here’s what life is like in Mosul today: A roadside bomb detonated near the cultural group petrol station downtown Mosul city. Five people were injured A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Al-Sukar neighborhood in Mosul city.Two policemen were injured. Gunmen killed two prominent Sheikhs [...]
Mosul: Finally, a reporter on the ground
Posted in Iraq, Mosul on June 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The New York Times has a well-reported piece on the troubles in Mosul, clearly spelling out what most of us (alas, not the Reuters guys in Baghdad) have known all along: Maj. Adam Boyd, the intelligence officer for the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, described the Sunni insurgency here as a dozen groups, including the Islamic [...]
Insurgency in Mosul: Now you see us, now you don’t
Posted in Iraq, ISF, Mosul on May 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After the widely advertised government “crackdown” in Mosul, things are returning to normal. The lesson, in caps: YOU DO NOT ELIMINATE AN INSURGENCY BY MASS DETENTIONS. (Note to the Baghdad press corps: Please pull your head out of your butt and go report. No more blindly parroting the Maliki “al-Qaeda is on the run” meme, [...]
Iraq: Yazidis under attack again
Posted in Iraq, Mosul on May 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Insurgents who vanished from Mosul before the recent government operations have regrouped elsewhere in Nineveh, terrorising the Yazidi communities west of the city, Azzaman reports. ‘The residential settlements and villages of the district of Sinjar are lost to gunmen. They have burned official records and caused a lot of damage and many casualties,’ one source [...]
