U.S., Iraqi troops rebuilding in Mosul

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A U.S. Army Armored Excavator from the 232nd Engineer Company begins filling Hesco barriers on the early morning of March 29 at Mosul.


U.S., Iraqi troops rebuilding in Mosul
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, April 3, 2008

U.S. and Iraqi troops are rebuilding a combat outpost in Mosul that was destroyed by a truck bomb last month, killing 13 Iraqi troops and wounding 35 others.

The base, called Combat Outpost Inman, is in the western part of Mosul, a key city in the northern part of Iraq that is often described as al-Qaida in Iraq’s last urban stronghold. In January, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki moved Iraqi reinforcements to the city and said a “decisive” battle would be fought against the Sunni insurgent group.

Within days, U.S. commanders were softening those comments, saying the process of clearing Mosul would be long and methodical.

Both U.S. and Iraqi officials have said that many insurgents in Mosul had fled there from Baghdad and Anbar provinces, after additional U.S. troops were sent to those areas.

In Mosul, as in other key cities around the country, U.S. troops began moving with Iraqi forces into smaller outposts like Inman. The smaller outposts put them in closer proximity with the Iraqi population and moved them into neighborhoods that did not have a permanent security presence.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53786