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Sunni Militants Drive Iraqi Army Out of Mosul Sunni Militants Drive Iraqi Army Out of Mosul
(about 4 hours later)
BAGHDAD — Iraqi army soldiers abandoned their weapons and fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, as Sunni militants freed hundreds of prisoners and seized military bases, police stations, banks, the airport and the provincial governor’s headquarters. The attacks widened the Sunni insurgency in Iraq and were among the most audacious assaults on the government since the American military withdrawal more than two years ago. BAGHDAD — Sunni militants spilling over the border from Syria seized control Tuesday of the northern city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest, in the most stunning success yet in a rapidly widening insurgency that threatens to drag the country and the region into war.
The rout in Mosul, the second-largest Iraqi city after Baghdad and an important center of the country’s petroleum industry, was breathtaking in its speed and appeared to take government officials by surprise, not to mention residents of the city and surrounding Nineveh Province. A major humiliation for the government forces in Iraq’s Sunni-dominated areas, the defeat also reflected the stamina of the Sunni insurgency, which has been growing with the war in neighboring Syria. Having consolidated control over Sunni-dominated Nineveh Province, armed gunmen were heading on the main road to Baghdad, Iraqi officials said, and had already taken over parts of Salahuddin Province. Thousands of civilians were fleeing south toward Baghdad and east toward the autonomous region of Kurdistan, where security is maintained by a fiercely loyal army, the peshmerga.
Mosul was the last major urban area of Iraq to be pacified by American troops before they left, and the violence there now threatens to broaden into the adjacent oil-rich region of Kirkuk and autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which has its own armed forces, the peshmerga. There were unconfirmed reports late Tuesday that Sunni militants, flush with victory in Mosul, had overrun parts of Kirkuk to the southeast as soldiers and police officers abandoned their posts. The Iraqi army apparently crumbled in the face of the militant assault, as soldiers dropped their weapons, shed their uniforms for civilian clothes and blended in with the fleeing masses. The militants freed thousands of prisoners and took over military bases, police stations, banks and provincial headquarters, before raising the black flag of the jihadi group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria over public buildings. The bodies of soldiers, police officers and civilians lay scattered in the streets.
Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of Iraq’s Parliament and a brother of Nineveh’s governor, called on the authorities in the Kurdistan autonomous region to send reinforcements to fight the Sunni militants. BasNews, an independent news agency in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan autonomous region, reported on Monday that Kurdish military forces had already been ordered to the outskirts of Mosul to protect Kurds threatened by the Sunni insurgents. “They took control of everything, and they are everywhere,” said one soldier who fled the city, and gave only his first name, Haidar.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ordered a state of emergency for the entire country and called on friendly governments for help, without mentioning the United States specifically. His Shiite-led government has been increasingly struggling to deal with the resurrection of Sunni militancy in Iraq since the American military departure at the end of 2011 after eight years of war and occupation. The swift capture of large areas of the city by militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria represented a climactic moment on a long trajectory of Iraq’s unraveling since the withdrawal of American forces at the end of 2011.
In Washington the State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said in a statement that the United States was “deeply concerned about the events that have transpired in Mosul,” and that the Obama administration supported a “strong, coordinated response to push back this aggression.” The statement said the administration would provide “all appropriate assistance to the government of Iraq” but did not specify what aid might be forthcoming. The rising insurgency in Iraq seemed likely to add to the foreign policy woes of the Obama administration, which has faced sharp criticism for its swap of five Taliban officers for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and now must answer questions about the death of five Americans by friendly fire in Afghanistan on Monday night.
The mayhem also alarmed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, who said in a statement that he was “gravely concerned by the serious deterioration of the security situation in Mosul, where thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent violence.” Critics have long warned that America’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq, without leaving even a token force, invited an insurgent revival, while the apparent role of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Tuesday’s attack helps vindicate those who have called for arming more moderate groups in the Syrian conflict, among them the former ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford.
By midday on Tuesday, militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, one of the strongest extremist groups, were in control of much of central and southern Mosul, according to witnesses. Local officials claimed that many of the fighters were jihadists who had swept in from the porous border with Syria, who have increasingly operated with impunity in that region even as President Bashar al-Assad has reclaimed ground lost to the insurgents elsewhere in Syria. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ordered a state of emergency for the entire country and called on friendly governments for help, without mentioning the United States specifically.
As hundreds of families fled Mosul, the bodies of slain soldiers, police officers and civilians were seen lying in streets. “They took control of everything, and they are everywhere,” said one soldier who fled the city, and gave only his first name, Haidar. In Washington, the State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said in a statement that the United States was “deeply concerned about the events that have transpired in Mosul,” and that the Obama administration supported a “strong, coordinated response to push back this aggression.” The statement said the administration would provide “all appropriate assistance to the government of Iraq” and called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “not only a threat to the stability of Iraq, but a threat to the entire region.”
An Agence France-Presse journalist based in Mosul, seeking to flee the city with his family, reported shuttered shops, at least one police station set afire, many vehicles of the security forces abandoned or burned, and hundreds of residents, escaping in overloaded cars or on foot, carrying whatever they could. Mosul was the last major urban area to be pacified by American troops and, when they left, the United States contended that Iraq was on the path to peace and democracy.
Others reported that the militants were collecting military equipment abandoned by the fleeing Iraqi forces, much of it American-made. Jenan Moussa, a reporter for Al Aan TV, a Dubai-based Arab satellite television network, posted on her Twitter account a photograph of what she described as a pair of Humvees that had already been driven into Syria. Even as insurgents consolidated control of Mosul and surrounding Nineveh Province on Tuesday, they also looked to other targets. They cut off a portion of the main highway that links the city with Baghdad, the capital, and secured villages near Kirkuk, a major city that is in dispute between Arabs and Kurds, according to security officials.
The Mosul assault came in a week when Mr. Maliki’s government has been trying to beat back a surging militant offensive concentrated in central and northern Iraq and carried out by hundreds of well-armed fighters roaming the country in pickup trucks, seemingly able to strike at will. For more than six months, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has maintained control of Falluja, in Iraq’s Sunni-Arab Anbar province, a city where hundreds of Americans died trying to crush an insurgency. While Falluja carries symbolic importance to the United States, the seizure of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, with a mix of ethnicities, sects and religions, is more ominous for the stability of Iraq.
In Mosul, along with the cities of Samarra and Ramadi, the militants have stormed police stations, government offices and even a university. On Saturday, car bombs killed scores of people across the capital, Baghdad, in one of the deadliest coordinated attacks in weeks. “It’s a shock,” said James Jeffrey, a former United States ambassador to Iraq. “It’s extremely serious. It’s far more serious than Falluja.”
Security officials have framed the attacks as an attempt by militants to distract the army from its ongoing battle in the western province of Anbar, where militants have managed to hold territory, including the city of Falluja and parts of neighboring Ramadi, for six months. Mosul is a transportation hub for goods coming from Turkey and elsewhere. An important oil pipeline is nearby, carrying nearly 15 percent of the country’s oil flow to a port on the Turkish coast.
With the fighting on Tuesday, the government faced the possibility of losing another major Iraqi city to extremists whose stated goals include erasing the border with Syria and establishing an Islamic state that transcends both. The chaos in Mosul also illustrated how the violence in Iraq has increasingly merged with the civil war in Syria, as extremists now operate on both sides of the porous border. On Tuesday, local officials claimed that many of the fighters were jihadists who had come from the lawless frontier that divides Iraq and Syria, a region where they have increasingly operated with impunity even as President Bashar al-Assad has reclaimed ground lost to the insurgents elsewhere in Syria.
“The Iraqi-Syrian border has been steadily disappearing over the last few months with ISIS gains,” Andrew J. Tabler, a senior fellow with the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in an email message. “This episode is probably the biggest example to date of the failure to keep up with and contain the Syria crisis.” Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi Parliament speaker, a Sunni from Mosul, called the fighting a “foreign invasion of Iraq, carried out by terrorist groups from different countries.”
With its soldiers on the run, the Iraq government appeared to face a deep challenge in regaining control of Mosul, a stronghold for extremist groups linked to Al Qaeda and a hub of financing for militants, who ran extortion and kidnapping rings to finance their operations in Iraq and Syria. The rout in Mosul was a humiliating defeat for Iraq’s security forces, led by Prime Minister Maliki and his Shiite dominated government, and equipped and trained by the United States at a cost of billions of dollars. As the insurgency has gained strength over the last year, Mr. Maliki has been criticized for pursuing security policies that alienated ordinary Sunnis, such as sweeps that rounded up hundreds of men, innocent and guilty alike, and even arresting the wives of suspected militants.
“The reach of armed Sunni extremist groups beyond the restive province of Anbar reinforces our view that the Islamist insurgency will create significant challenges to the security forces and central government authority over the next two years,” Ayham Kamel, director of the Middle East and North Africa department at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm in Washington, said in an assessment emailed to clients. Referring to the security forces in Mosul, Mr. Jeffrey, now a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said, “they had lost the support of the people because they had a sectarian policy, and I saw it with my own eyes.”
Mr. Kamel said the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria would “use cash reserves from Mosul’s banks, military equipment from seized military and police bases, and the release of 2,500 fighters from local jails to bolster its miliary and financial capacity.” Highlighting the gravity of the situation, some of Iraq’s Shiite religious authorities in the holy city of Najaf issued statements Tuesday in support of the army, which is dominated by Shiites. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the top Shiite spiritual leader in the world, stressed his “support to the sons within the security forces.” A representative in Najaf for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, went further, urging Shiites to join the security forces.
The army responded to the rout on Tuesday by bombing at least one military base that had been captured by the militants, but there was no immediate sign of a broader offensive to reclaim the city. As audacious as the assault on Mosul was, it was not entirely surprising. Fighting had raged for days there, and in recent years, analysts say, militants had raised millions of dollars a month there through extortion and kidnapping. “I.S.I.S. has been targeting Mosul for two years,” said Jessica D. Lewis, research director at the Institute for the Study of War.
The fighting in Mosul intensified early Tuesday, when the militants stormed the offices of the provincial governor. Later on Tuesday, dozens of army and police vehicles were burning in the streets, witnesses said. The militants, patrolling the city in pickup trucks and flying the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, tried to calm civilians by saying they did not intend to fight the city’s residents. But that did nothing to stem a mass exodus from the city. Now, Mosul, which nearly became part of French-controlled Syria after World War I, when the allies redrew the map of the Middle East, could become an even more important base for the group as it pursues its stated goals of erasing the border with Syria and establishing an Islamic state that transcends both.
Iraqi officials said the attack provided further evidence of contagion from the war in neighboring Syria. The Iraqi Parliament speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi, called the fighting a “foreign invasion of Iraq, carried out by terrorist groups from different countries.” Ayham Kamel, director of the Middle East and North Africa for the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm in Washington, said in an assessment emailed to clients that the militant group would “use cash reserves from Mosul’s banks, military equipment from seized military and police bases and the release of 2,500 fighters from local jails to bolster its military and financial capability.”
As fears mounted that the militant offensive would broaden to other Iraqi provinces, there was condemnation of the army, whose commanders and soldiers had abandoned their posts in the city. For Mr. Maliki, the violence in Mosul represents a significant political challenge, as he is trying to secure a third term as prime minister. His coalition won the most seats in Parliament in national elections in April, but not a majority, and he has been negotiating with other factions to form a new government.
“The prison was left to the hands of criminals, and opened,” Mr. Nujaifi said in a televised address, referring to reports that inmates were running free on the streets of Mosul. The army even abandoned the airport, he said. “What happened was a disaster, based on all measures,” he said. “This will raise serious questions about Maliki’s leadership,” said Mr. Jeffrey, adding: “The country has to figure out if it wants Maliki to continue as prime minister.”
Zuhair al-Aaraji, a member of Parliament from Mosul, said that government security forces fled from some places without firing a shot. “They left their weapons and their equipment and ran away,” he said. “All these weapons are under the control of the militants now. The Mosul assault came in a week when Mr. Maliki’s government has been trying to beat back a surging militant offensive concentrated in central and northern Iraq. In the cities of Samarra and Ramadi the militants have stormed police stations, government offices and even a university. On Saturday, car bombs killed scores of people across Baghdad in one of the deadliest coordinated attacks in weeks.
After militants captured Falluja at the end of last year, the United States rushed guns, ammunition and Hellfire missiles to Iraq, but those seemed to make little difference. In some cases, the weapons were captured by insurgents in Anbar, and on Tuesday it appeared that more American equipment had fallen into the hands of the militants, including American-made Humvees.
The army responded to the rout on Tuesday by bombing at least one military base that had been captured by the militants, but there was no immediate sign of a broader offensive to reclaim the city. Early Tuesday morning, militants stormed the offices of the provincial governor and later in the day, dozens of army and police vehicles were burning in the streets, witnesses said.
Residents said militants started moving into the city the night before, taking positions that had been abandoned by the army. Around 1 a.m., one resident, who gave his name as Abu Mustafa, left his home and found militants in sport utility vehicles, some dressed in jeans, others in Afghan-style clothing. Some, he said, spoke Arabic in accents other than Iraqi.
“They greeted us, and when they saw that we were scared they said, ‘We are not here to fight you, just stay away and do not interfere,' ” he recalled. “'We are here to fight Maliki’s army, not you.”
By nightfall on Tuesday, the city was calm, residents said, but there was no electricity, water supplies were running low and there was little fuel to run generators. The bodies of militants had been taken away for burial, but the corpses of security forces still lay in the streets.