Mosul residents divided on US withdrawal (News Feature)

By dpa correspondents Jun 22, 2009, 14:05 GMT

Mosul, Iraq - A week before US troops leave the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which remains one of the most dangerous places in the country, residents were divided on whether the withdrawal would make them safer.

'I expect the insurgency will wither after the US soldiers withdraw from the city,' Said Hikmat, a 45-year-old lawyer from Mosul, told the German Press Agency dpa. 'Their presence is the main reason for the attacks.'

Haseeb Ahmed, a 32-year-old taxi driver, agreed.

'The situation will improve once the occupiers have left. If resistance fighters want to target them after their withdrawal, they'll have to go outside the city to attack them in their bases, without harming civilians,' he told dpa.

'I also think the fighters will be less likely to target Iraqi soldiers after the US troops leave the city,' he said. 'They're being attacked because there's a perception that they are collaborating with the US soldiers.'

'Once the US soldiers are gone, the Iraqi security forces will be able to go back to their normal duties, serving citizens and maintaining security, as they did before the invasion of Iraq,' he added.

Not everyone was as sanguine.

'I will leave the city with the last US soldier,' Sultan Hikmat, a 55-year-old doctor, told dpa. 'And most other doctors here will do the same. The US troops have been able to impose security.'

A 42-year-old merchant, who gave his name only as Abu-Idris, worried that the Iraqi security forces were not yet ready for the challenge. Iraqi troops have been accused of a lack of professionalism, as well as being a magnet for attacks rather than a foil.

'I'm not sure the Iraqi forces can control the city,' he said. 'The attitude of the Iraqi security forces makes decent citizens not want to cooperate with them. If they continue to perform like this, I'm afraid security will be worse after the withdrawal.'

'Iraqi forces must change the way they deal with citizens. We must cooperate if we're going to bring security to the city,' said a senior Iraqi military officer from Mosul who asked to be cited only as Abu-Marwan because of the sensitivity of the topic.

'But,' he said, 'I foresee a US agenda to create chaos and destabilize the city after US troops withdraw from Mosul and other cities around the country so citizens wish the US soldiers would return. They will blame the Iraqi forces for the chaos that the Americans created.'

'There will probably be more violence after the US forces leave,' said Daraman Khatari, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led 'Brotherly List,' which came in second in January's provincial council elections.

'Maintaining security in the city will require extraordinary efforts and cooperation among all the parties,' he said.

'And don't forget that US troops will remain to help maintain security in areas outside Mosul and in the disputed territories' claimed by Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government in Northern Iraq, he said.

'There are understandings between the Ministry of Defence (in Baghdad) and the (Kurdish) Ministry of Peshmerga that US soldiers will remain to ease any possible friction between Iraqi security forces and those associated with the province of Kurdistan,' Khatari said.

'There may be difficulties at the beginning,' Al-Abd Rabu, president of the local provincial council, acknowledged. 'But security in the province is continually improving. Compared to six months ago, the security forces have become more professional, more able to move freely, and more freed from political connections.'

'The withdrawal of US soldiers may prove to be a double-edged sword,' said Sheikh Mohammed al-Shamaa, a religious official in the province. 'If the Iraqi security forces are able to take full responsibility and develop better relations with the public, it will be for everybody's good, but if not... '

The sheikh trailed off, apparently unwilling to finish the sentence.