Qaeda Clings To Mosul As Violence Falls In Iraq
-- The Star/Reuters

BALAD, Iraq (Reuters) - The U.S. commander in northern Iraq says that al Qaeda is making a last stand in the city of Mosul as violence has dropped elsewhere in the area.

Bombings and shootings occur almost daily in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, even though nearly all of the rest of Iraq has become much quieter over the past 18 months.

The city's strategic position near Syria and remote mountainous and desert terrain make it difficult to secure, Major-General Mark Hertling told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

"We have had a real downturn in attacks against both coalition forces and Iraqi security forces," Hertling said.

"Mosul is a different story. Al Qaeda is specifically trying to hang on in Iraq and Mosul is the place they've chosen to do it."

U.S. and Iraqi forces say the weakened Sunni Islamist group is trying to regroup in north Iraq after being forced from western Anbar province and its strongholds in and around Baghdad.

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My Comment: Mosul will be pacified, and will be the template on how Iraq will secure its peace .... or it will be the template that will explode sectarian tensions.