Mosul, Iraq - A week before US troops leave the northern
Iraqi city of Mosul, which remains one of the most dangerous places
in the country, residents were divided on whether the withdrawal
would make them safer.
'I expect the insurgency will wither after the US soldiers
withdraw from the city,' Said Hikmat, a 45-year-old lawyer from
Mosul, told the German Press Agency dpa. 'Their presence is the main
reason for the attacks.'
Haseeb Ahmed, a 32-year-old taxi driver, agreed.
'The situation will improve once the occupiers have left. If
resistance fighters want to target them after their withdrawal,
they'll have to go outside the city to attack them in their bases,
without harming civilians,' he told dpa.
'I also think the fighters will be less likely to target Iraqi
soldiers after the US troops leave the city,' he said. 'They're being
attacked because there's a perception that they are collaborating
with the US soldiers.'
'Once the US soldiers are gone, the Iraqi security forces will be
able to go back to their normal duties, serving citizens and
maintaining security, as they did before the invasion of Iraq,' he
added.
Not everyone was as sanguine.
'I will leave the city with the last US soldier,' Sultan Hikmat, a
55-year-old doctor, told dpa. 'And most other doctors here will do
the same. The US troops have been able to impose security.'
A 42-year-old merchant, who gave his name only as Abu-Idris,
worried that the Iraqi security forces were not yet ready for the
challenge. Iraqi troops have been accused of a lack of
professionalism, as well as being a magnet for attacks rather than a
foil.
'I'm not sure the Iraqi forces can control the city,' he said.
'The attitude of the Iraqi security forces makes decent citizens not
want to cooperate with them. If they continue to perform like this,
I'm afraid security will be worse after the withdrawal.'
'Iraqi forces must change the way they deal with citizens. We must
cooperate if we're going to bring security to the city,' said a
senior Iraqi military officer from Mosul who asked to be cited only
as Abu-Marwan because of the sensitivity of the topic.
'But,' he said, 'I foresee a US agenda to create chaos and
destabilize the city after US troops withdraw from Mosul and other
cities around the country so citizens wish the US soldiers would
return. They will blame the Iraqi forces for the chaos that the
Americans created.'
'There will probably be more violence after the US forces leave,'
said Daraman Khatari, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led 'Brotherly
List,' which came in second in January's provincial council
elections.
'Maintaining security in the city will require extraordinary
efforts and cooperation among all the parties,' he said.
'And don't forget that US troops will remain to help maintain
security in areas outside Mosul and in the disputed territories'
claimed by Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government in Northern
Iraq, he said.
'There are understandings between the Ministry of Defence (in
Baghdad) and the (Kurdish) Ministry of Peshmerga that US soldiers
will remain to ease any possible friction between Iraqi security
forces and those associated with the province of Kurdistan,' Khatari
said.
'There may be difficulties at the beginning,' Al-Abd Rabu,
president of the local provincial council, acknowledged. 'But
security in the province is continually improving. Compared to six
months ago, the security forces have become more professional, more
able to move freely, and more freed from political connections.'
'The withdrawal of US soldiers may prove to be a double-edged
sword,' said Sheikh Mohammed al-Shamaa, a religious official
in the province. 'If the Iraqi security forces are able to take full
responsibility and develop better relations with the public, it will
be for everybody's good, but if not... '
The sheikh trailed off, apparently unwilling to finish the
sentence.
USA
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