Troops respond to attacks in Mosul

Sunni preachers in three prominent mosques called for jihad against America.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
MOSUL, Iraq -- The Iraq government hurriedly pulled in troops Friday to help control the burgeoning insurgency here, while Sunni preachers used weekly prayers to urge Iraqis to take up arms on behalf of their brothers in Fallujah.
The Iraqi government called in National Guardsmen from camps on the Iranian and Syrian borders, according to a report in The Associated Press. Meanwhile, the United States moved a Marine Stryker battalion from Fallujah to help quash the fighting in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city.
On Thursday night, U.S. planes bombed the city's southwest, which is held by guerrilla forces. The attacks came after insurgents raged through the city for two days, burning police stations, terrorizing local police and Iraqi national guards, stealing weapons and assassinating key public figures.
Insurgent attacks
On Friday, insurgents attacked the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two Kurdish parties, setting off a vicious firefight. At day's end the headquarters was still under Kurdish control.
Ten guardsmen were killed in Mosul, said U.S. Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of the army battalion in charge of the city in an interview on CNN. The police chief was fired by the Interior Minister amid accusations that the police were conspiring with the insurgents.
"It's fair to say that there are some ties to the insurgents," said Ham. "We'd be kidding ourselves if we thought that was not the case."
Meanwhile Sunni preachers at three key mosques called for jihad.
"U.S. forces have dishonored us, killed our sons and detained our women; therefore it is every Muslim's duty to go to jihad," said one preacher. "All of us should assist our Jihadi brothers with money and weapons. The time has come to avenge our brothers in Fallujah and Samara."
Urges defiance of Americans
With calls to arms multiplying, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born militant who is thought to be one of the leaders of the foreign insurgents, urged Fallujah fighters to defy the Americans. He spoke from an Internet Web site and his comments were reported by news services.
At Um al Koura, one of the largest Sunni mosques in Baghdad, Mohammed Basher Faidhi, spokesman for the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, urged worshippers to join the insurgency and boycott January's scheduled elections.
Participating in the elections would be Iraq's road to ruin, said Faidhi.
"What if the constitution votes to become secular? Do you know that in a secular political structure, a married woman could have an affair and her husband will not be able to do anything about it? Secularism promotes adultery and infidel practices. The poor will be poorer and the rich richer."