Seven Iraqi policemen, 30 rebels killed in Mosul clashes

[Barrett808]

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - Seven policemen and more than 30 rebels were killed in clashes with rebels in Iraq (news - web sites)'s northern capital of Mosul, with one wounded policeman taken from his hospital bed, butchered and his corpse strung up, the interior minister said.

In Sunday's incidents, rebels "kidnapped a wounded policeman from hospital and cut him into pieces while he was injured, then he was hung in an area and then policeman came and cut him down", Falah al-Nakib told reporters in Baghdad.

Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of the capital, has suffered a spike in lawlessness in the past week as rebels flocked to the city following a US-Iraqi assault on the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah.

A series of daring and coordinated attacks by insurgents on police stations in the city last Wednesday left at least five people dead, several wounded and many stations in rebel hands.

But the interior minister said order was gradually being restored.

"We have retaken most of the police statons, there are only three or four left, and more than 50 percent of policemen in the city have returned to work," he said.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041115/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_mosul_police&cid=1514&ncid=1480

[bemildred]

1. Another site I ran across says that a Major and Msgt were killed

in the Mosul unprising. Mortars I think it was.
Ah here it is:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/199594_tl115.html

Happened Tuesday. Some other ugly bits there.