Iraqi troops build for Mosul offensive

BAGHDAD — Iraqi army units reached the northern city of Mosul on Sunday in preparation for what the Iraqi government said would be a major offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni militants in the northern province.

The reinforcements included Iraqi aircraft and tanks.

"The largest portion of those forces have arrived already. They are Iraqi army forces and include troops, mechanized troops and air force," said Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari. "The plan will be similar to the ones implemented in Baghdad and Diyala [province]."

The U.S. military said Sunday it had no information on any Iraqi military operations in Mosul at this time.

In the last year, U.S. and Iraq forces mounted major campaigns to take back areas under the control of Sunni Arab militants, benefiting from the additional 28,500 American troops that arrived during the first half of 2007.

Al-Qaida militants have lost the upper hand in Baghdad, where many former insurgents have made alliances with U.S. forces. In Diyala, insurgents remain active.

At least 34 people were killed in Mosul on Wednesday, when militants blew up a building. The next day a suicide bomber assassinated the province's police chief.

The violence prompted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to vow to take back Mosul, which is seen as a stronghold for al-Qaida in Iraq after militants fled north under pressure from U.S.-led forces in Baghdad and Anbar.

Mosul is Iraq's third-largest city, with 1.7 million people.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, reported two soldiers killed over the weekend in separate bombings in Baghdad — one on a foot patrol Saturday near Kazimiyah and another whose vehicle was hit Sunday by a roadside bomb in northeastern Baghdad.

Both attacks were in predominantly Shiite Muslim neighborhoods.

The deaths raised to at least 3,934 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In the capital, the former director general of eastern Baghdad's water and sewage systems, his wife and his daughter were beheaded in their home Sunday morning, a police officer said. The man's nephew was also stabbed and died later at the hospital.

The former official, Ahmed Jawad Hashim, served in Baghdad during the late dictator Saddam Hussein's reign, police said.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.