Associated Press

July 25, 2003 Friday

HEADLINE: U.S. Hopes Deaths Won't Spur Iraq Crisis

BYLINE: BORZOU DARAGAHI; Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: MOSUL, Iraq

BODY:  The U.S. commander in northern Iraq said Friday he hopes the killing of Odai and Qusai Hussein will not shatter the region's relative calm and spirit of cooperation with American occupiers.

Since the raid in which Saddam Hussein's son were killed, four U.S. soldiers died in ambush attacks in and around Mosul.

"We hope it's not the case that the attacks herald a new era," Maj. Gen. David Petraeus told The Associated Press. "We've made so much progress here. Knock on wood."

Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, which carried out the raid that killed the brothers, said in an interview that his men knew in advance they might be going after the two sons - but that the tip was one of many coalition forces get from informants and was treated as questionable.

"We get so many tips," he said. "The only difference was this one led to number two and three."

Mosul - a city with a mixed population of Kurds and Arabs - lies well north of the so-called "Sunni Triangle," the region of central Iraq dominated by Arab Sunni Muslims that has seen most of the attacks on U.S. forces. Kurds in Mosul and other parts of the north particularly welcomed the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sadddam.

Petraeus said attacks on American forces in and around Mosul ebb and flow and that militants had begun launching bolder attacks against American forces about a week ago. "Ambushes and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) attacks had became more brazen," he said.

Petraeus added that American forces in the Mosul area had conducted numerous sweeps over the last 48 hours that netted several wanted regime loyalists. "They aren't on the Pentagon's list of most wanted, they're on Mosul's list," he said.

After the collapse of Baathist rule in the north, Mosul descended into chaos, rampant looting and gunfire.

But in the 3 1/2 months since, it has become a model of both reconstruction and cooperation between American forces and Iraqi residents. It was the first city to elect a governing council. It now has regular electrical power and, because of a contract with an Iraqi Kurdish satellite telecommunications firm, international telephone service.

Petraeus, speaking as he sat in a sport utility vehicle outside the former Saddam palace now housing the 101st Airborne's headquarters, cited his division's successes in Mosul - rebuilding water treatment facilities and the university, relaunching sports programs, restoring and expanding Internet service. He said his division directly employs 5,000 people and has spent at least $7 million on reconstruction projects.

To encourage trade, Americans have reopened the Syrian border at the town of Rabiya and hope to restore rail service between Iraq and Syria.

To improve security, the 101st has begun conducting regular training exercises with Turkish special forces along the Iraqi-Turkish border, once used as a staging ground for attacks by Kurdish separatists on Turkish positions.

In addition, he said, the 101st has created four 120-man security units that can be used as a model for the civil militia now being planned in Baghdad. The often-quarrelsome Arabs and Kurds who make up the security forces designed their own logo for the units: two fists clasped together in partnership.