Middle East News
Iraqi commander allays fears over Mosul crackdown (Roundup)
By DPA
May 15, 2008, 14:25 GMT

Baghdad - A senior Iraqi military official sought Thursday to allay fears of clans in the northern city of Mosul that forces from Iraq's Kurdish region are taking part in an offensive in the city while attackers targeted the motorcade of the governor of Baghdad.

In a statement issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Defence, Babakr Zebari, the army chief of staff, said Kurdish peshmerga forces were not taking part in the offensive against al-Qaeda militants in Mosul, the capital of the Nineveh province.

'Peshmerga troops are the border guards in the Kurdish region and they operate only within this region,' Zebari said.

'But there are Kurds in the Iraqi army because they are part of the Iraqi people. All Kurdish soldiers and officers in the second and third divisions of the Iraqi army work for the ministry of defence,' said Zebari, who is a Kurd.

Mosul is a multi-ethnic city with a long history of tolerance. The Sunni Arab community in the city fears that the neighbouring Kurdish Autonomous Region may lay claim to the Nineveh province.

Clan chiefs in Mosul have been complaining about the alleged deployment of units from the peshmerga in the offensive.

Before the launch of the Mosul offensive Saturday, former army officers were reportedly arrested on suspicion of belonging to the outlawed Ba'th Party of former president Saddam Hussein.

Local clan chiefs decried, in interviews with local media, the arrests and urged the government to release them.

Zebari said some 6,000 recruits from Mosul have joined the army and dismissed reports of the arrests.

The army, Zebari said, took into account the needs of local clans when drawing up the plan for the offensive.

The Mosul offensive comes on the heels of two other operations in Basra and Sadr City, both of which targeted Shiite militias.

Mosul is believed to be the last urban stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq group, which is a homegrown militant Sunni group with links to al-Qaeda terrorist network.

In north-east Baghdad, Sadr City has seen a lull in violence overnight and in the early hours of Thursday with only one shooting incident registered, General Qasim Atta from Iraq's ministry of interior told the Voices of Iraq VOI news agency.

However, local hospital sources told VOI that two local hospitals have admitted 11 wounded people and received the bodies of six people killed in fighting between militiamen loyal Shiite cleric Moqtada al- Sadr and Iraqi and US troops.

Sadr City has been the scene of deadly fighting since Iraqi authorities backed by the US military launched a crackdown on Shiite militias in the south as well as Shiite-dominated districts in Baghdad.

The government and al-Sadr have reached a truce deal this week but sporadic fighting broke the generally calm situation in the slum area of Sadr City.

In central Baghdad, a roadside explosive detonated in Sahet al- Nusur district, targeting Hussein al-Tahan, Baghdad's governor, VOI reported.

Sources said al-Tahan was not present in the procession, but one of his guards was killed and four others were among the six injured.