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Al-Qaeda seizes Iraq's third-largest city as terrified residents flee
Militants storm northern city of Mosul, freeing thousands of prisoners, as Iraqi prime minister declares state of emergency and offers to arm citizens who volunteer to fight against militants
By Colin Freeman,
Telegraph and Agencies
2:44PM BST 10 June 2014
Al-Qaeda seized control of Iraq's third biggest city on Tuesday, freeing thousands of imprisoned fellow fighters in a series of jailbreaks and sparking a mass exodus of refugees.
The assault on the city of Mosul, 225 miles north west of Baghdad, saw the Iraqi army retreat to the outskirts after a sustained assault by men armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades
As well as seizing the main governorate building - forcing the city's governor to flee - the gunmen were also reported to have gained control of three different jails, numerous police stations and an airport, where several military planes and helicopters were based.
The loss of the city, home to around one million people, is potentially a huge challenge to the Iraqi government, which has been struggling to quell a regalvanised al-Qaeda insurgency for more than two years
As residents fled in their thousands, they spoke of seeing militants raising al-Qaeda's black flag from buildings, and of newly-released prisoners running through the streets in yellow jumpsuits.
"Mosul now is like hell. It's up in flames," said Amina Ibrahim, who like many others was heading for northern Iraq's more stable Kurdish-controlled zone. "I lost my husband in a bomb blast last year, I don't want my kids to follow him."
The militants are believed to be from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the joint Iraqi-Syrian al-Qaida affiliate that is also fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in neighbouring Syria. Seizing control of Mosul, which lies on a stretch of the Tigris less than 100 miles from the Syrian border, would help the group in its aim of carving out a swathe of uncontested territory straddling the two borders.
While the exact picture in Mosul was still confused on Tuesday because of the ongoing fighting, the militants appeared to have made significant ground in routing Iraqi security forces, some of whom were filmed being pelted with rocks as they pulled out of the city.
"The city of Mosul is outside the control of the state and at the mercy of the militants," an interior ministry official told the Agence France Presse news agency, saying soldiers had fled after removing their uniforms.
Several residents told the Associated Press that the militants were now touring the city with loudspeakers, announcing that they had "come to liberate Mosul and would fight only those who attack them".
"The situation is chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us," said Umm Karam, a government employee. "We are afraid... There is no police or army in Mosul."
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, said on Tuesday that the government would provide weapons and equipment to citizens who volunteer to fight against militants.
Maliki, in a statement broadcast on state TV, said the cabinet has "created a special crisis cell to follow up on the process of volunteering and equipping and arming".
The assault follows similar attempts by ISIL in January to seize the western cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, which Iraqi security forces are still fighting to regain control of some five months on.
Mosul, however, represents a potentially far bigger prize, as the regional capital of the non-Kurdish section of northern Iraq. It has been a stronghold of al-Qaeda for nearly a decade, ever since militants attempted a similar takeover in late 2004, when US troops were in control. While other Iraqi cities were later largely cleared of al-Qaeda during the US troop "surge" in 2007, the group was never properly routed from Mosul, where it has since rebuilt its presence.
Last year, diplomats in Baghdad told The Telegraph that the group had also established a thriving Mafia-style extortion empire in the city, raking in up to £1 million a month in "protection" fees from local businesses.
The assault on Mosul began around four days ago, around the same time that gunmen briefly took around 1,000 students hostage at a university campus in Ramadi. Having gained control of most of the western side of Mosul, the insurgents seized the government complex - a key symbol of state authority - late on Monday.
According to Reuters, the city’s governor, Atheel Nujaifi, was trapped inside the provincial government’s headquarters but managed to escape while police held back an assault by hundreds of militants. Just earlier that day, Mr Nujaifi had made a televised plea to the city's residents to stand up to the militants.
"I call on the men of Mosul to stand firm in their areas and defend them against the outsiders, and to form popular committees through the provincial council," he said, speaking with the Iraqi flag draped behind him.
Several army officers told Reuters that the Iraqi forces were demoralized and outgunned by ISIL. "Without urgent intervention of more supporting troops, Mosul could fall into their hands in a matter of days" said a senior security official.
Another officer added: "They are well trained in street fighting and we're not.
They're like ghosts: they appear to strike and disappear in seconds."
Following the taking of the governor's office, Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, on Wednesday asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. "Iraq is undergoing a difficult stage," he said, acknowledging that militants had taken control of "vital areas in Mosul."
The Turkish government said it was investigating reports that 28 Turkish lorry drivers had been taken hostage in Nineveh, the province that surrounds Nineveh.
Having effectively been reduced to a spent force by 2008, al-Qaeda's brand of Sunni Muslim extremism has gradually regained strength in Iraq thanks to growing discontent with the Shia-led government among the country's minority Sunni community, who ruled during the late Saddam Hussein's time.
Many Sunnis accuse the government of treating them as second-class citizens, and while not all of them support al-Qaeda's ideology, the growing sense of discontent has driven some to see al-Qaeda as an ally again. The Iraqi government's slow response to the demands of a new Sunni-led civil rights movement, based on the Arab Spring protests in neighbouring countries, has also inflamed tensions.
Violence in Iraq is now running at its highest levels since 2006-2007, when tens of thousands were killed in sectarian conflict between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni Arab minority. More than 900 people were killed last month, according to figures separately compiled by the United Nations and the government.
Security officials also attribute the spike in violence to the organisational capabilities of the new local leader of al-Qaeda, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who formed ISIL under the nom de guerre of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
As well as strings of attacks involving carbombings and gun assaults, al-Baghdadi organised a previous mass jail break from the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad last summer, freeing an estimated 500 hard-core militants.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...largest-city-as-terrified-residents-flee.html
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Militants storm northern city of Mosul, freeing thousands of prisoners, as Iraqi prime minister declares state of emergency and offers to arm citizens who volunteer to fight against militants
By Colin Freeman,
Telegraph and Agencies
2:44PM BST 10 June 2014
Al-Qaeda seized control of Iraq's third biggest city on Tuesday, freeing thousands of imprisoned fellow fighters in a series of jailbreaks and sparking a mass exodus of refugees.
The assault on the city of Mosul, 225 miles north west of Baghdad, saw the Iraqi army retreat to the outskirts after a sustained assault by men armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades
As well as seizing the main governorate building - forcing the city's governor to flee - the gunmen were also reported to have gained control of three different jails, numerous police stations and an airport, where several military planes and helicopters were based.
The loss of the city, home to around one million people, is potentially a huge challenge to the Iraqi government, which has been struggling to quell a regalvanised al-Qaeda insurgency for more than two years
As residents fled in their thousands, they spoke of seeing militants raising al-Qaeda's black flag from buildings, and of newly-released prisoners running through the streets in yellow jumpsuits.
"Mosul now is like hell. It's up in flames," said Amina Ibrahim, who like many others was heading for northern Iraq's more stable Kurdish-controlled zone. "I lost my husband in a bomb blast last year, I don't want my kids to follow him."
The militants are believed to be from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the joint Iraqi-Syrian al-Qaida affiliate that is also fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in neighbouring Syria. Seizing control of Mosul, which lies on a stretch of the Tigris less than 100 miles from the Syrian border, would help the group in its aim of carving out a swathe of uncontested territory straddling the two borders.
While the exact picture in Mosul was still confused on Tuesday because of the ongoing fighting, the militants appeared to have made significant ground in routing Iraqi security forces, some of whom were filmed being pelted with rocks as they pulled out of the city.
"The city of Mosul is outside the control of the state and at the mercy of the militants," an interior ministry official told the Agence France Presse news agency, saying soldiers had fled after removing their uniforms.
Several residents told the Associated Press that the militants were now touring the city with loudspeakers, announcing that they had "come to liberate Mosul and would fight only those who attack them".
"The situation is chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us," said Umm Karam, a government employee. "We are afraid... There is no police or army in Mosul."
Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, said on Tuesday that the government would provide weapons and equipment to citizens who volunteer to fight against militants.
Maliki, in a statement broadcast on state TV, said the cabinet has "created a special crisis cell to follow up on the process of volunteering and equipping and arming".
The assault follows similar attempts by ISIL in January to seize the western cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, which Iraqi security forces are still fighting to regain control of some five months on.
Mosul, however, represents a potentially far bigger prize, as the regional capital of the non-Kurdish section of northern Iraq. It has been a stronghold of al-Qaeda for nearly a decade, ever since militants attempted a similar takeover in late 2004, when US troops were in control. While other Iraqi cities were later largely cleared of al-Qaeda during the US troop "surge" in 2007, the group was never properly routed from Mosul, where it has since rebuilt its presence.
Last year, diplomats in Baghdad told The Telegraph that the group had also established a thriving Mafia-style extortion empire in the city, raking in up to £1 million a month in "protection" fees from local businesses.
The assault on Mosul began around four days ago, around the same time that gunmen briefly took around 1,000 students hostage at a university campus in Ramadi. Having gained control of most of the western side of Mosul, the insurgents seized the government complex - a key symbol of state authority - late on Monday.
According to Reuters, the city’s governor, Atheel Nujaifi, was trapped inside the provincial government’s headquarters but managed to escape while police held back an assault by hundreds of militants. Just earlier that day, Mr Nujaifi had made a televised plea to the city's residents to stand up to the militants.
"I call on the men of Mosul to stand firm in their areas and defend them against the outsiders, and to form popular committees through the provincial council," he said, speaking with the Iraqi flag draped behind him.
Several army officers told Reuters that the Iraqi forces were demoralized and outgunned by ISIL. "Without urgent intervention of more supporting troops, Mosul could fall into their hands in a matter of days" said a senior security official.
Another officer added: "They are well trained in street fighting and we're not.
They're like ghosts: they appear to strike and disappear in seconds."
Following the taking of the governor's office, Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, on Wednesday asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. "Iraq is undergoing a difficult stage," he said, acknowledging that militants had taken control of "vital areas in Mosul."
The Turkish government said it was investigating reports that 28 Turkish lorry drivers had been taken hostage in Nineveh, the province that surrounds Nineveh.
Having effectively been reduced to a spent force by 2008, al-Qaeda's brand of Sunni Muslim extremism has gradually regained strength in Iraq thanks to growing discontent with the Shia-led government among the country's minority Sunni community, who ruled during the late Saddam Hussein's time.
Many Sunnis accuse the government of treating them as second-class citizens, and while not all of them support al-Qaeda's ideology, the growing sense of discontent has driven some to see al-Qaeda as an ally again. The Iraqi government's slow response to the demands of a new Sunni-led civil rights movement, based on the Arab Spring protests in neighbouring countries, has also inflamed tensions.
Violence in Iraq is now running at its highest levels since 2006-2007, when tens of thousands were killed in sectarian conflict between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni Arab minority. More than 900 people were killed last month, according to figures separately compiled by the United Nations and the government.
Security officials also attribute the spike in violence to the organisational capabilities of the new local leader of al-Qaeda, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who formed ISIL under the nom de guerre of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
As well as strings of attacks involving carbombings and gun assaults, al-Baghdadi organised a previous mass jail break from the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad last summer, freeing an estimated 500 hard-core militants.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...largest-city-as-terrified-residents-flee.html
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