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Reuters
By Maher al-Thanoon
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Insurgents were in charge of some areas of south and western Mosul on Saturday, holding two police stations and manning road blocks, as Iraq's third largest city appeared to slide out of U.S. and Iraqi control.
Residents in neighborhoods throughout the city on the Tigris river, 240 miles north of Baghdad, said there was little visible presence of Iraqi security forces or U.S. troops on Saturday. They said armed gunmen held some areas.
"In the south and the west of the city, insurgents are doing patrols to protect banks and shops from looters. They are guarding hospitals, schools and fire stations," said one resident, who would give only his first name, Thamer.
Another resident said there were Iraqi National Guards and some U.S. troops positioned at the ends of some of the five bridges that span the Tigris in Mosul, but other than that security was light. Insurgents were keeping security elsewhere.
In districts where insurgents do not have a strong presence, vigilantes set up their own security watches, establishing roadblocks and overnight patrols to deter thieves and looters.
None of the residents interviewed by Reuters would give their full names, saying they feared for their lives. They described the atmosphere in the city as tense and in flux.
While the city has seen frequent outbreaks of violence over the past year, people said this week's was the worst since the end of the war.
The U.S. military has denied the city is out of Iraqi or U.S. control and said on Saturday the situation was calmer, with only sporadic fighting in some areas. It said three of the bridges over the Tigris had been reopened.
"There is no widespread fighting," a spokeswoman said.
She also dismissed as baseless reports carried on Arabic TV channels that a U.S. base in northern Mosul had been overrun. Sources said the small base -- no more than a few buildings -- likely belonged to a foreign security contracting firm.
Mosul, a mostly Sunni Muslim city of about 2 million people, tipped into chaos on Wednesday and Thursday, when groups of armed men attacked at least nine police stations, stealing weapons and bullet-proof vests and setting the buildings ablaze.
They fought street battles with Iraqi police and National Guard units, killing five guardsmen in one attack, witnesses said. One U.S. soldier was killed in another incident.
In some cases it appeared Iraqi police stripped off their uniforms and joined the militants, witnesses said. The Iraqi government on Friday dismissed the head of Mosul's police force.
The upsurge in violence coincided with the U.S. military's offensive to retake Falluja from rebels.
U.S. military commanders have said many rebel fighters and leaders probably left Falluja before the offensive kicked off on Monday and there has been a step up in guerrilla activity across the Sunni heartland since, with fighting in Baquba, Tikrit, Hawija, Samarra, Ramadi and parts of Baghdad.
The heaviest fighting has been in Mosul.
U.S. warplanes struck insurgent areas on Thursday night in an effort to quell the rebellion. Jets were still making low passes on Saturday, residents said.
A U.S. military spokeswoman said on Friday Iraqi National Guard forces were being sent in from a base near the Syrian border to reinforce. It was not clear when they would arrive.
Newspapers in the city reported that some of the National Guard reinforcements could include units from the former Kurdish peshmerga army. There are fears that such a deployment could stoke ethnic tensions, provoking deeper conflict.
"The people are very afraid that the Kurds will come into the city backed by the Americans and try to take us over," said a life-long resident who said Mosul's people were uncomfortable with the increased Kurdish presence since last year's war.
He feared that when Iraqi reinforcements arrived to try to retake control of the city, there would be heavy fighting.
"There will be a war in the streets, I am sure of it."
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