The Associated Press reports that Iraqi government reinforcements were rushed to Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, to put down a militant uprising:
Police in Mosul largely disappeared from the streets, residents reported, and gangs of armed men brandishing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers roamed the city, 225 miles north of Baghdad. Responding to the crisis, Iraqi authorities dismissed Mosul's police chief after local officials reported that officers were abandoning their stations to militants without firing a shot.
[. . .]
Gunmen attacked the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party in an hourlong battle that a party official said left six assailants dead.
Militants also assassinated the head of the city's anti-crime task force, Brig. Gen. Mowaffaq Mohammed Dahham, and set fire to his home.
[. . .]
In addition to firing the Mosul police chief, Iraqi authorities also dispatched four battalions of the Iraqi National Guard from garrisons along the Syrian and ian borders.
Most of the reinforcements are ethnic Kurds who fought alongside American forces during the 2003 invasion - a move which could inflame ethnic rivalries with Mosul's Sunni Arab population. Nevertheless, it appeared Iraqi authorities had no choice given the apparent failure of the city's police force to maintain order.
[. . .]
Mosul area deputy Gov. Khissrou Gouran said gunmen tried to storm a food distribution center in the city's Yarmouk area but were forced back by National Guardsmen and security guards. The gunmen were trying to destroy election registration cards held at the center, Gouran said.
It is disturbing that Mosul wasn't adequately defended.
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