Reply #3: Street battles in Iraqi cities point to dire security status

[Tempest]

Sprawling street battles between militia gunmen and Iraqi security forces erupted in three cities on Wednesday on a day of wide-ranging violence that underscored the grave security situation across much of Iraq.

In the northern city of Mosul, more than 200 Sunni Arab insurgents carried out a sophisticated attack on several targets using suicide car bombers, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and improvised bombs, said Major General Watheq al-Hamdani, the top police commander in Mosul.

Four police officers died in the fighting, while 14 others were wounded along with 16 civilians, Hamdani said.

The attack began at dusk when gunmen tried to storm the main provincial jail, the commander said. When police forces responded, the insurgents attacked them with six suicide car bombs, and 14 bombs planted on surrounding roads exploded.

As the police and insurgents fought near the prison, gunmen also attacked the houses of Hamdani and Khasro Goran, deputy governor of Mosul Province and one of the senior members of a leading Kurdish political party, the police commander said. Neither man was wounded.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/17/africa/17iraq.php