Iraqi-led security missions begin

Hundreds of Iraqi troops and police armed with AK-47s swarmed through a troubled district of Mosul at dawn Thursday, launching the first major military operation conceived and led by Iraq's new security forces.

More than 600 Iraqi National Guard (ING) troops and city police, backed by an outer cordon of 150 US troops, swept the Al Antezar neighborhood in a house-to-house dragnet, confiscating weapons and detaining several terrorist suspects.

The ambitious operation, ordered by the Nineveh Province governor a day after the transfer of power, amounted to a robust - if at times chaotic - show of force intended to demonstrate that Iraqi authorities are taking security into their own hands.

"Now we have to gain the public trust," says Lt. Col. Ragheed Khalid Mohammed, the jaunty commander of an Iraqi National Guard battalion that took part in the operation. "We need 1,000 friends, and not one enemy."

Indeed, in many respects, the push to secure Mosul against a backdrop of recent terrorist mayhem is emblematic of the struggle for Iraq itself, with fledgling Iraqi forces in a test of wills against car bombers and assassins seeking to shatter public confidence in Iraq's future.

"Clearly it's a dangerous time for Iraqi security forces," says Lt. Col. Gordie Flowers, whose US troops in wheeled Stryker vehicles set up checkpoints on the outskirts of the neighborhood. "It's the irreversible momentum of a cohesive, effective Iraqi security force that threatens the enemy, and that's why this transition could be a dangerous phase."

American commanders here were surprised by the unprecedented scope of the Iraqi operation, which they learned about less than 48 hours in advance. Taking the backseat in a major operation for the first time since the Iraq war began, US forces supplied the Iraqis with detailed maps, attack helicopters, and an outer security cordon, but otherwise served mainly as advisers. A few US officers expressed concern, however, about the potential intrusiveness of the sweep, formally named "Operation Mutual Security," but dubbed by some: "Operation Mosul Lock-Down."

"Depend on God! Move on! Don't be scared!" Col. Nashwan Ahmed Mubarak shouts into a Motorola radio, urging his 250 soldiers forward as dawn breaks a deep blue over a horizon of ramshackle buildings and trash-strewn lots.

A large man with a thick moustache and prone to dramatic gestures, Colonel Mubarak seems to relish being in command of a truly Iraqi-led mission. "We were waiting for this day," he says, as truckloads of his troops fan down dirt roads. "Coalition forces were honest in handing over power."

Yet while Mubarak says his troops are ready "psychologically," he frets over sending them into combat with meager gear. "We're still waiting," he says, "for everything from helmets and body armor to night-vision goggles and binoculars.

Other challenges came with mounting the first large joint operation involving the Iraqi National Guard (ING) and police, as Thursday's sweep showed.

At just before 5 a.m., Mosul police chief Gen. Mohammed Khiary Barhawai, nominally in charge of the operation, pulls up in the lead of a huge convoy of white Iraqi police pickup trucks and strides quickly over to Mubarak.

"You agreed to start the search at 6 o'clock - why are you early?" he demanded. The first of several snafus, it illustrates both the evident tensions between different branches of the new Iraqi security establishment, as well as the complexities they face in coordinating such a large-scale dragnet for the first time.

As the police and forces from two ING battalions sped out through their three separate sectors of the neighborhood, for example, it was soon apparent that each unit was going a different direction. Colonel Flowers, drawing arrows on the map, offered a brief lesson in synchronizing movement - for the next time.

Another debate arose when the police and ING disagreed on whether to confiscate all the weapons found, or to allow each household to keep one for self defense. "If we think they are tricky, we will take the gun, if they seem good, they can keep it," suggested General Barhawai, in a blue cap and shirt.

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