The US military is acting to stem the rising tide of radical Islamism in Iraq's third largest city and rooting out preachers held to be using their sermons to incite attacks on Americans.
Alarmed by a surge of deadly attacks in Mosul, a Sunni Muslim stronghold of 1.7 million Arabs and Kurds, coalition forces are running what the US commander, Major General David Petraeus, calls a "race to win over the hearts and minds of the people".
A team of US army chaplains is liaising with imams at the city's main mosques in an attempt to reassure the once dominant Sunni Arabs that they have not lost their stake in the new Iraq.
The attacks, including one on Sunday in which two American soldiers were shot dead and then apparently mutilated, reveal a simmering resentment among sections of Mosul's Arab population, particularly the large number of unemployed and disaffected youth.
Last night, gunmen in Mosul used a roadside bomb to ambush US soldiers on patrol, then fired on them, wounding one soldier.
Lieutenant Colonel Chester Egert, chaplain with Gen Petraeus's 101st Airborne Division, coordinates the religious outreach programme. "Since Saddam's departure and the removal of the Ba'ath leadership, many Sunnis in the city have turned to the mosques for guidance and support," he said. "We have a great deal of support from the most popular and respected imams. They understand we do not want to stay here a moment longer than necessary."
Sheikh Salih Khalil Hamoody, one of Mosul's senior clerics, welcomed the US attempt at bridge-building, but warned this was undermined by the heavy-handedness of US troops in response to the worsening security.
"It could drive the youth into the arms of Saddam's loyalists and religious extremists," Sheikh Hamoody said. Sheikhs complained that US soldiers showed disrespect to ordinary Muslims at the growing number of checkpoints, he said. They also alleged that former Ba'athists, now working for the American-trained civil defence corps, were sent into mosques to spy on the imams.
The US military believes some mosques are centres of resistance, and used to store weapons and enlist recruits. In the past week, raids on at least 10 mosques resulted in the arrest of up to 100 people and the capture of weapons.
The US hearts and minds campaign will not be easy. A group of clerics in the city, the Association of Muslim Scholars, recently warned the faithful: "Beware of supporting the occupiers, and know that contacting them, without a legitimate necessity is sinful."
"Some mosques in Mosul are outlets for anti-American rhetoric," said Col Egert. "We do monitor what the imams say. "They are free to say what they want - provided they don't preach violence." He said the Iraqi authorities had removed one imamfor anti-US speeches.
· The Iraqi Governing Council yesterday banned al-Arabiya, one of the biggest Arab TV news networks, from Iraq for "a certain time" for broadcasting a tape a week ago of a voice it said was Saddam's.
About 20 Iraqi police officers raided the office of the Dubai-based company in Baghdad's Mansour district, seizing equipment, Ali al-Khatib, an al-Arabiya correspondent, reported. He said they were carrying an order from the Governing Council and said they would keep the equipment until al-Arabiya wrote a letter pledging never to encourage terrorism.