Some parts of Iraq are now largely peaceful and have been progressing on reconstruction and economic revival plans, however faltering they may be. Mosul, the country’s second largest city, is not one of those places.
Violence has declined according to US military records. In September 2008 there were 287 reported attacks. By September 2009 that number was 121, down from an average of 10 per day to four. Despite the fall Mosul remains highly dangerous, described by senior US military commanders at the end of 2009 as the ’heart of the insurgency’. A typical week’s worth of violence might include assassinations, street gun battles, roadside bombings, drive-by shootings and kidnappings.
Since 30th June 2009 American troops have formally pulled out of the urban centre, yet their sprawling base on Mosul airport is actually within city limits and US soldiers still conduct almost daily street patrols to check on aid projects. They move in heavily armoured convoys and take a pair of attack helicopters for protection with them when they go.
Mosul’s police force is 8,000 men short of full strength and, despite being reinforced by a unit of heavily armed paramilitary federal police from Baghdad, it operates only on the west side of the city. The east side is too dangerous.
In October 2009, Iraqi security forces carried out the latest in a series of major operations designed to break the lingering hold militants have kept over the city, arresting 150 suspects. Such large sweeps were by that stage unheard of in other parts of the country, where the war had moved into a different, lower level phase. Mosul however has been left behind and the violence continues.
Pictures by Phil Sands, all photos copyright Makoto Photographic Agency and the photographer. Reproduction in any form without permission prohibited.