Iraqi military: al-Qaida fleeing Mosul

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Iraqi military: al-Qaida fleeing Mosul
By Lee Keath - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday May 25, 2008 17:49:16 EDT

BAGHDAD — Al-Qaida fighters and other Sunni insurgents have largely scattered from the northern city of Mosul in the face of a U.S.-Iraqi sweep, fleeing to desert areas further south, an Iraqi commander said Sunday. He vowed the forces will not allow them to regroup.

The U.S. military said al-Qaida in Iraq was “off-balance and on the run” but remains a very lethal threat, tempering remarks by the U.S. ambassador a day earlier that the terror network was closer than ever to being defeated.

The comments came amid a flurry of attacks in Baghdad and other areas, most likely attributable to Sunni insurgents. A roadside bomb targeted a patrol of U.S.-allied Sunni Arab fighters near a mosque in northern Baghdad, killing one of the so-called Awakening Council members and wounding three others, a police official said.

Bombings and shootings killed three people in and around the city of Baqubah, north of Baghdad, where U.S. forces waged a fierce offensive last year to break al-Qaida domination of the city, police said. Police officials in both cities spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Iraqi security forces also conducted their first major roundup of weapons caches in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Sadr City, where troops and police deployed last week — a move that could raise tensions in the military’s truce with the powerful Mahdi Army militia.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_alqaida_iraq_052508/