Troops retake police stations in Mosul

US and Iraqi troops recaptured police stations and secured bridges in the northern city of Mosul in an offensive aimed at pushing out fighters supporting the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.

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

Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard as US warplanes and helicopters circled over Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city with more than a million residents.

Mortar shells hit two areas near the main government building in the city centre, killing three civilians and wounding 25, hospital officials said. One American soldier was wounded when a car bomb exploded near a US convoy in western Mosul.

The US-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. Some officers also allegedly co-operated with rebels.

The operation was launched after US and Iraqi reinforcements were rushed to Mosul. A US Army infantry battalion was recalled from the fighting in Fallujah, 300 Iraqi National Guard soldiers came from garrisons along the borders with Iran and Syria and a special police battalion was sent from Baghdad.

US military spokeswoman Capt Angela Bowman said the attack began as troops closed Mosul’s five bridges and American soldiers began securing police stations in the western part of the city.

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

US Marines continued to hunt for fighters hiding in Fallujah, but air strikes and gunfire waned considerably after a week of heavy fighting that left the Americans in control of the city west of Baghdad that had been the main insurgent bastion.

The US military said it was investigating the fatal shooting of a wounded “enemy combatant” by a Marine in a Fallujah mosque over the weekend. The inquiry was begun after videotaped pool pictures taken Saturday by NBC showed the incident during an operation of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

The Marine was removed from duty pending the results of the investigation, the military said.

US aerial missions over Iraq were beginning to slow after a 50% 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 told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, A US soldier was killed and another wounded north of Baghdad yesterday when a bomb detonated near their convoy, the US military said.

Stepped-up assaults on rebels in Fallujah and elsewhere have pushed the US death toll to at least 91 in November, making it the second-deadliest month for American troops since the Iraq invasion in March 2003, Pentagon figures show. The worst month was April, with 135 deaths, when Marines fought fierce battles in Fallujah, only to be withdrawn.

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.

The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.