Iraq

U.S. finds little resistance as it begins Mosul operation

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi troops recaptured police stations and secured bridges in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday in an offensive aimed at pushing out fighters supporting the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Troops met "very little resistance" in securing several of the dozen or so police stations that had been captured by insurgents, the U.S. military command said. Nineveh province's deputy governor said militants blew up the Zuhour police station ahead of the U.S. advance, but the U.S. military denied any stations were destroyed.

Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard as U.S. warplanes and helicopters circled over Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city with more than 1-million residents.

Mortar shells hit two areas near the main government building in the city center, killing three civilians and wounding 25, hospital officials said. One American soldier was wounded by a car bomb near a U.S. convoy in western Mosul, the military said.

The U.S.-led offensive is aimed at seizing control of the city 225 miles north of Baghdad, where gunmen stormed police stations, bridges and political offices last week. The city's police force was overwhelmed and in many places failed to even put up a fight.

The operation was launched after U.S. and Iraqi reinforcements were rushed to Mosul.

The attack began Tuesday as troops closed Mosul's five bridges and American soldiers began securing police stations in the western part of the city, said Capt. Angela Bowman, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

"We are in the process of securing all of the police stations and returning the police to these stations," she said.

U.S. Marines continued to hunt for fighters hiding in Fallujah, but airstrikes and gunfire waned considerably after a week of heavy fighting that left the Americans in control of the city.

U.S. aerial missions over Iraq are beginning to slow after a 50 percent jump that accompanied the Fallujah offensive, said Rear Adm. Barry McCullough, commander of the USS John F. Kennedy battle group in the Persian Gulf.

"The operation is starting to wind down now. That doesn't mean there aren't pockets of insurgents and terrorists in Fallujah," McCullough said.

A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded north of Baghdad on Tuesday when a bomb detonated near their convoy, the U.S. military said.

In other violence, a rocket hit a busy commercial district near the government administration building in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing one person and wounding three, Iraqi officials reported.

In Baghdad, U.S. troops arrested Naseer Ayaef, a deputy head of the Iraqi National Council and a high-ranking member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said Ayad al-Samarrai, an official in the influential Sunni Muslim political party.

Al-Samarrai contended the arrest was retaliation for the party's criticism of the Fallujah offensive and opposition to security policies of the U.S. command and Iraq's interim government.

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