Nov. 24, 2003
Fears Iraqi Insurgency Spreading
More Attacks In Mosul & Kirkuk, Once Relatively Peaceful Cities
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Play CBS Video Video Death Toll Climbing In Iraq The attacks on GIs - and the almost daily rise in the American death toll - continue. So far, 427 GIs have died. Elizabeth Palmer reports U.S. military officials there remain confident.
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Video Iraq Rebels Frustrate Troops
In the aftermath of the donkey cart attacks in Iraq, it is clear that the insurgents fighting U.S. troops have shown resilience against their well-equipped enemies, CBS News' Allen Pizzey reports.
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Video Mob Kills Soldiers In Iraq two soldiers are dead after being savagely beaten by a mob, CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer reports.
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Soldiers of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division secure an area during searching operation for insurgents outside Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. (AP)
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In this image taken from video, the body of a US soldier lies next to his vehicle in Mosul on Sunday. (AP)
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Iraqis and U.S. Army soldiers inspect the damage outside a police station after it was attacked by a car bomb in Baqouba on Saturday. (AP)
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Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Interactive Bin Laden & Al Qaeda Where al Qaeda operates, who's been caught, how they're financed and a timeline of attacks on Americans.
Near the northern city of Kirkuk, an oil pipeline was on fire Monday. Adel al-Qazzaz, manager of the Northern Oil Company, said he believed sabotage was to blame. Insurgents have repeatedly targeted pipelines, and sabotage of oil infrastructure has become a major problem for the U.S.-run coalition.
In the Mosul attack, gunmen activated a roadside bomb and opened fire on the convoy, injuring a soldier, the military said.
Local residents said U.S. troops immediately cordoned the area in Hay al-Dobat neighborhood. "I heard a strong explosion saw the Americans randomly shooting in all directions," said Omar Hamed, a witness.
In other developments:
On Sunday, gunmen in Mosul shot two American soldiers driving through the city center, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall. About a dozen swarming teenagers dragged the men out of the wreckage and beat them with concrete blocks, the witnesses said.
"One of the soldiers was shot under the chin and the bullet came out of his head. I saw the hole in his helmet. The other was shot in the throat," said Bahaa Jassim, a witness.
The city is 250 miles north of Baghdad.
Some people looted the vehicle of weapons, CDs and a backpack, Jassim said.
The frenzy recalled the October 1993 scene in Somalia, when locals dragged the bodies of U.S. Marines killed in fighting with warlords through the streets.
The savagery of the attack was unusual for Mosul, once touted as a success story in sharp contrast to the anti-American violence seen in Sunni Muslim areas just north and west of Baghdad.
Members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said U.S. troops and Iraqi police raided one of their offices in Mosul about 10:00 a.m. A party member, Salem Hussein, said the Americans arrested two PUK guards and confiscated four Kalashnikov rifles, a television set, a computer, a printer, a satellite receiver and a small amount of cash.
U.S. military officials said that someone opened fire on Iraqi police and ran into a PUK building but had no other details.
In recent weeks, attacks against U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies — such as policemen and politicians working for the interim Iraqi administration — have increased in the region surrounding Mosul.
In Kirkuk, 150 miles north of Baghdad, three American civilian contractors from the U.S. firm Kellogg Brown & Root were injured Sunday when a bomb exploded at an oil compound.
In Baqouba, just north of Baghdad, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb as a 4th Infantry Division convoy passed, killing one soldier and wounding two others, the military said Sunday.
Sunday's deaths brought to 427 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began.
And gunmen killed the Iraqi police chief of Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, and his bodyguard and driver, American and Iraqi officials said. That was at least the third Iraqi official murdered in the past week.
An Iraqi Sunni Muslim religious leader Monday called on U.S. forces and resistance groups to observe a one-week cease-fire to allow the Iraqis to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, media reports said.
©MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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