Iraqi army to attack al-Qaida stronghold

Iraqi army reinforcements moved into positions near the northern city of Mosul today, ready to strike al-Qaida in Iraq targets in their last urban stronghold.

Maj. Gen. Riyad Jalal, a senior officer in the Mosul region, said the additional forces were encamped in an Iraqi base near the city and would open an offensive against al-Qaida fighters "immediately after all the added troops arrive".

Iraqi and US officials have not said how many additional soldiers were heading towards Iraq's third largest city, an important trade and transportation hub, after a massive bombing there last week badly damaged a poor neighbourhood, killing 38 and wounding more than 200.

A senior police official was killed the next day whilst inspecting the damage.

Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said most army reinforcements had reached the city, 225 miles north west of Baghdad.

"The operations against al-Qaida in Mosul will start soon," he said. The Iraqi military planned to use armoured vehicles, tanks and helicopters.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said 3,000 residents in Mosul would be recruited to bolster the city's police force.

The US military does not plan to send additional forces to Mosul, which a military spokesman said earlier this month was the last urban safe haven for al-Qaida-led insurgents.

The US has said Iraqi security forces will take the lead in Mosul - a major test of Washington's plan to, at an undetermined date, shrink the American force and leave it as backup for Iraqi security forces.

"Regarding Mosul, an area we recognise is of strategic importance to al-Qaida, our operations will continue in that area again, not in a new way but in a continued way," said Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, a military spokesman.