Iraqi troops adjust to Mosul operations

MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Iraqi army divisions face a fluid threat environment as they transition from al-Qaida operations in Baghdad to ethnically diverse Mosul, a review says.

The 3rd Battalion, 9th Brigade of the Iraqi army deployed from the East Rashid district in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, to the city of Mosul to help dispel al-Qaida elements from the northern city.

Iraqi troops said the transition from one of the few remaining al-Qaida holdouts in Baghdad to the volatile city of Mosul, however, will not be a dramatic shift in assignment, a review of the situation by The Long War Journal said Tuesday.

"Compared to al-Dora (a neighborhood in East Rashid), this is nothing here in Mosul," said Iraqi commander Col. Najem Abdul Wahad Mutleq.

Iraqi forces in Mosul will gather intelligence from local residents to gain additional knowledge regarding insurgent activity in the north.

Gunmen shot and killed political candidate Mowaffaq al-Hamdani with the Iraq for Us slate in Mosul last week as he sat in a local cafe, and a suicide car bomb struck a police patrol in the city Tuesday, killing five civilians and wounding five officers.

Iraqi and U.S. forces said the situation in Mosul is complicated by demographic divisions in the city, with Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and Turkomen making up the majority of the local population.

"There is no sense of community here," said the Iraqi colonel.