Battle of Mosul (2004)

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Battle of Mosul
Part of Post-invasion Iraq
Date November 10, 2004 - November 16, 2004 Location Mosul, Iraq Result Insurgent victory (Mosul is destabalised)
Combatants
United States, Iraqi Security Forces	Iraqi insurgents
Strength
2,000	Unknown
Casualties
4 KIA (U.S.) 116 killed and 5,000 deserted (Iraqi forces)[1] 5 civilians killed 1 British security contractor killed 1 Turkish contractor killed	71 killed

Iraq War
Invasion – Post-invasion (Insurgency – Civil War) Battles & operations – Bombings and terrorist attacks

The Battle for Mosul was a battle fought during the Iraq War in 2004 for the capital of the Ninawa Governorate in northern Iraq that occurred concurrently to fighting in Fallujah.

Contents 1 Prelude 2 The battle 3 Aftermath 4 References

[edit] Prelude

During the occupation by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division in 2003, a 21,000-strong force under Gen. Petraeus, the U.S. forces made a civil peace with the local Sunni tribes. However, after its pullout, the CIA allied itself almost exclusively with the Kurds, and the U.S. had been seen as essentially another tribal ally of the Kurds, making conflict inevitable. While members of the 25th Infantry Division were heading out of Mosul to Fallujah to help in the attack on the city, insurgents were, ironically, coming in to the city from Fallujah where they were joined by foreign fighters from across the border. Attacks on coalition forces in the city intensified and the insurgents were planning on trying to take the city when the attack on Fallujah began.

[edit] The battle

On November 10, 2004, hundreds of insurgents flooded the streets of the city. They started attacking Iraqi security forces and by the next day had taken the initiative. On the November 11, the insurgents had captured one police station and destroyed a further two. They broke into the stations' armories and distributed the weapons and flak jackets they could find. The Iraqi police force was overrun in a matter of hours, scattering and deserting from the street fighting. Security in the city almost completely broke down. Before the end of the night, insurgent forces had managed to take one of the five bridges over the Tigris river before the Americans took control of the other four. Further insurgent reinforcements arrived at the city on November 12 in technicals and other vehicles. Nine more police stations were attacked – one was destroyed and the others were taken. The headquarters of the Kurdish Union party was also attacked and burned to the ground. The United States Air Force began a bombing campaign on rebel positions in the city which continued into the next day. One of the targets hit was a cemetery.

By November 13, the insurgents had assumed control of two-thirds of the city. They began to hunt down members of the new Iraqi security forces and publicly execute them, usually by beheading. A battalion of the U.S. 25th Infantry Division was diverted from the attack on Fallujah to help in retaking the city. Also, 300 members of the Iraqi National Guard from the Syrian border, an Iraqi special forces battalion from Baghdad and a number of Kurdish peshmerga fighters were called in to assist. The same day, American forces were evacuated from their base at one of Saddam's former palaces in Mosul. Reuters news footage showed looters taking everything they could. Two more police stations were taken by the insurgents on November 14, though their forces withdrew from one. The same day, they burned the governor's house. Two days later, on November 16, U.S. forces managed to break through across the insurgent-controlled bridge, and went on to take back the northern, eastern and southern part of the city. The Americans reported that they met little resistance, though three of the ten police stations were burned down by withdrawing insurgent forces. By late in the evening the city was partly secured by the 25th Infantry.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

[edit] Aftermath

Over the next three weeks, 76 bodies of executed Iraqi soldiers were found throughout the city. 122 people were killed during the street fighting : 4 U.S. soldiers, 31 members of the Iraqi security forces, 9 Kurdish peshmerga fighters, 71 insurgents, five civilians, one British security contractor and one Turkish truck driver. With that the final death toll of the insurgent uprising in Mosul was 198 killed.

The insurgents managed to make a safe haven out of the western part of the city from where they continued to conduct hit and run attacks over the coming months. One of the more notable attacks came just a month after the fighting ceased, when a suicide bomber dressed like an Iraqi soldier managed to get in to the mess tent on an American base and detonated himself – killing 22 people, including 14 American soldiers. The battle resulted in the city complement of security forces deserting leaving the area insecure.[1]

[edit] References