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MOSUL, Nov 20: The bodies of what are believed to be nine murdered Iraqi soldiers were found in Mosul on Saturday as US and Iraqi forces patrolled the city in a continuing bid to drive out guerillas.
The US Army claimed killing 15 guerillas in an operation in Mosul that began on Friday night while US-backed Iraqi commandos stormed a suspected militant position in Mosul's old city, a warren of cramped streets and crumbling homes.
Marks on the bodies of the nine men found dead in the country's third largest city suggested they had been killed by a bullet to the head. The bodies were discovered in an industrial area not far from the scene of some of the worst clashes in Mosul.
Four of the corpses were also badly burned. Senior Iraqi and US military sources said they probably belonged to an Iraqi army unit that had joined US troops for a massive onslaught against militants in Mosul. With US attack helicopters and soldiers covering them, members of the Iraqi National Guard retrieved the bodies.
"These are not my men. They all have IDs from outside Baghdad. It seems they had been on leave and were returning to their barracks," said Lt Col Ammar Abdelhadi of the National Guard.
"Some of the guys from an army unit recently moved to one of the US bases to take part in the operation. They have some guys missing," said Lt Col Michael Kurilla of the US Army.
A witness said he had seen five people executing some of the men who were found dead.
"A group of five young men pulled up in front of the nearby veterinarian hospital, shot four men and dumped the bodies on the railway tracks," said Abu Abed.
Parts of Mosul were set ablaze last week when militants ransacked and torched about 10 police stations in coordinated attacks, panicking police who abandoned their posts.
A force of about 1,200 US soldiers and 1,600 Iraqis took to the streets on Tuesday to restore order, in the latest major push to reclaim guerilla enclaves in Iraq.
OPERATION: The operation in Mosul took around an hour, and Iraqi military officials spoke of similar assaults in the future.
The US Army is also searching for two missing Iraqi National Guard officials feared kidnapped a few days ago by guerillas setting up road blocks elsewhere in the city.
The group of Abu Musab al Zarqawi claimed to have publicly killed two officials of the National Guard in Mosul this week, according to an Internet statement on Friday."The heroes of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia cut the throats on Thursday afternoon of two despots of the heathen National Guard _ a colonel and a lieutenant," said the text, signed by Zarqawi's "Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers" group.
"Their execution took place in Mosul in front of a huge crowd," it added.
Despite Saturday's grim discovery, Mosul Governor Duraid Kashmula insisted that the situation was under control and vowed to create a new police force after nearly 80 per cent of his 5,000 police officials deserted in the Nov 11 attacks.
"We will replace all the deserters in the police force and hire new policemen that believe in their country and will stand up and defend and die for their country," he said.
On an optimistic note, he said Saturday marked the first time that schools and government buildings were open since the guerillas first struck, adding that the city's bridges had also been reopened.
Streets in central Mosul appeared more active on Saturday, with some shops open and huge numbers of people queuing for petrol.
"I came to work today and everything was fine," said one woman who works at the provincial government building.
The building, which guerillas had unsuccessfully tried to seize, was being guarded by US and Iraqi forces.
But many city services are still suspended, and the streets in some flashpoint neighbourhoods remain tense.
"I need to go back to my home and with them around I cannot do that," said Tareq Nuri, whose house is next to one of the police stations torched by guerillas and now occupied by US and Iraqi forces. -AFP
