Killing of U.S. soldier puts onus on Mosul cops
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — A police investigation of two of their own in the killing of an American soldier and his interpreter is seen as a test of Mosul’s police force — the weakest link among Iraqi security forces about to take the lead in protecting the country’s most violent city.
This city of 1.6 million people has long distrusted its police — particularly after thousands of officers fled their posts in November 2004, leaving the Americans and Kurdish fighters to fight Sunni insurgents who rose up here after being driven out of Fallujah.
The two policemen — an officer and a sergeant — were arrested last week by U.S. and Iraqi forces and handed over to Iraqi custody, according to Col. Gary Volesky, commander of U.S. troops in the province that includes Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city.
They are accused of firing on a U.S. patrol Feb. 24, killing Lt. William Emmert of Lincoln, Tenn., and his interpreter and wounding five others. The two policemen are believed to have fled Mosul after the attack, returning only a few weeks ago.
Under the terms of a security agreement that took effect at the beginning of the year, it is up to Iraqi authorities to prosecute the policemen. The Americans want the Mosul police to conduct a thorough and professional investigation of the shooting, a disturbing inside job that reinforced fears of insurgents and sympathizers possibly infiltrating Iraq’s security forces.
During a recent meeting, a Mosul police commander told Volesky the two suspects had not appeared before a judge — the first step toward prosecution — because of doubts not only that they were the gunmen, but that they were policemen at all.
Volesky wasn’t buying it, saying the men’s relatives had identified them.
“Everybody will be looking at your ability to investigate this completely,” Volesky said. “Let us know what you need from us to help you.”
Questions about the professionalism of Mosul’s police force are becoming more urgent because of the June 30 deadline for American combat troops to withdraw from Iraqi cities, moving to bases on the edge of town in case the Iraqis call for help.
Under the security pact with the Iraqi government, all U.S. troops will leave the country by the end of 2011 — including the roughly 50,000 who will be left behind after the combat troops withdraw next year.