Insurgency Remains Tenacious In North Iraq

Iraqi soldiers secured the site of a bomb attack in Mosul in northern Iraq on Thursday

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
NYT

BAGHDAD — Now that American troops have largely pulled back from Iraq’s cities, one violent region remains particularly intractable: Nineveh Province and its turbulent capital, Mosul. Even a major military offensive in the months before the withdrawal did not quell the insurgency or reduce the violence.

On Thursday, a twin suicide attack by bombers wearing explosive vests punctuated a recent string of attacks, a wave of violence that shows little sign of relenting. The blasts killed at least 35 people and wounded dozens more in Tal Afar, a city 40 miles west of Mosul that has been repeatedly scarred by sectarian bloodshed. It occurred the morning after two car bombs killed 12 people and wounded 30 near mosques in Mosul.

Those bombings, along with four others in Baghdad that killed 9 people and wounded 40, amounted to the worst eruption of violence since most American combat forces withdrew from Iraq’s cities and towns ahead of a June 30 deadline that Iraq celebrated as a day of liberation and sovereignty.

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