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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Search Search: Anatomy of an `inside' ambush in Iraq By BRIAN MURPHY,Associated Press Writer AP - Sunday, May 3 BAGHDAD - U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police had just sat down for lunch inside a police building in Mosul. Flak vests and other protective gear were removed. ADVERTISEMENT A door to the room was left ajar _ just wide enough for the barrels of Iraqi police AK-47s to be poked inside. The attackers fired. Then again. The suspected gunmen _ an Iraqi police officer still in his teens and a young sergeant _ ran toward a waiting car with return fire kicking up dust around them. The car swerved around a checkpoint and the attackers were gone. They are still missing. The Feb. 24 shooting _ which killed a U.S. soldier and an interpreter and wounded five others _ was an alarming inside job that reinforced what many fear: insurgents and sympathizers possibly infiltrating the ranks of Iraq's security forces. The U.S. military called it an "isolated incident." This is true in one regard: The shooting was one of the few irrefutable examples of deadly turncoats inside the Iraqi forces. On Saturday, an Iraqi soldier killed two American soldiers and wounded three at a combat outpost 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Mosul, the U.S. military said. Iraqi authorities described the attacker _ who was killed in the gunbattle _ as a rank-and-file soldier who also served as a Sunni Muslim preacher for his unit. But the worry of infiltration is not a new one. During the early stages of the Sunni insurgency in 2004, officials in Baghdad and the Pentagon suggested moles in the security forces were leaking information about troop movements or helping carry out attacks. Years of internal vetting and purges followed. Now, the Shiite-led government is under pressure to absorb a new crop of fighters in the security ranks as part of promised reconciliation with Sunnis. The main effort is to reward Sunni tribal militiamen who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies. But Shiite leaders _ and even some Sunni political bosses _ say it's critical to try to weed out potential insurgent sympathizers even as the U.S.-backed government moves ahead with its outreach to Sunnis. "It's not an easy thing to bring these Sunnis into the security forces. It can be messy. But it has to be done," said Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow of defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. The investigation into the late February attack _ from accounts built on U.S. military and Iraqi reports _ is a narrative that traces the Sunni tumble from privilege after Saddam Hussein's ouster, and highlights the current struggles to secure the northern city of Mosul. About 225 miles (380 kilometers) up the Tigris River from Baghdad, Mosul is one of the last bases for Sunni insurgents and could be among the lingering urban battlegrounds for U.S. forces as they prepare to move out of cities by June 30. Much depends on whether Iraqi security forces can rise to the challenges. On Feb. 24, a U.S. military team, including members of the Tennessee National Guard, visited one of the main Iraqi police training sites for a firsthand update. Among the guards on duty were 19-year-old officer Sa'ad al-Jubouri and Sgt. Mohammed Mouwafaq al-Nueimi. They had become close since al-Jubouri joined the force a year earlier. Both were from villages in the palm-dotted flatlands south of Mosul, where Sunni tribal loyalties were firmly with Saddam during his rule and some turned to the insurgency after the Americans moved in. Authorities believe the pair had already hatched a plot to ambush the U.S. soldiers. They were just waiting for the right moment. "They didn't need to be highly trained for this. It's not like a sniper. They just had to open fire when they had an opportunity," said Abdul Kareem Khalaf, a spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry. "They were prepared for this mission." Attackers in Iraq have sometimes disguised themselves in uniforms to bypass security checks. On April 20, a suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi army uniform attacked a U.S. military delegation visiting the mayor in Baqouba northeast of Baghdad, killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding at least eight American soldiers. "But this ambush in Mosul was from the inside," Khalaf said. "For the credibility of Iraqi forces, we cannot let this happen." The younger suspect, al-Jubouri, was still a boy during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. His village, Harara, was spared U.S. airstrikes. The battles in Mosul were rumblings over the northern horizon. But it meant his family's time of local influence was over. His father was an elder in the area's prominent al-Jubouri clan and had served as village mayor. More important, he had risen to become a leading figure in local Baath Party affairs. This brought favors from Saddam's regime, including enough extra money to build a small family compound with fruit trees and date palms. The U.S.-led invasion reordered the political hierarchy. Iraq's majority Shiites _ long suppressed by Saddam _ took sway over the government and security forces. The Kurds began looking beyond the borders of their self-ruled northern region to exert influence in cities such as Mosul. Like many Baathists, members of the al-Jubouri's family faced sweeping decisions: leave for Syria or Jordan or try to adapt to the occupation. His parents decided to lay low in the village. But some relatives, such as cousin Brig. Khalaf al-Jubouri of the Mosul police, joined the new security forces _ and hired a family member as a personal bodyguard, said a village resident who gave his name only as Abu Jassim. Then, in 2007, the younger al-Jubouri quit high school to become a police recruit, taking up the government offers to bring more Sunnis aboard. A police official who knows his family said al-Jubouri showed no outward signs of anger at U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies. He even took part in several raids against suspected al-Qaida in Iraq cells. "Someone must have convinced him that it was a patriotic act to attack Americans," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to comment on the case. "We're sure there are a lot of people who support him and will shelter him." Al-Jabouri's views could have been shaped by his growing friendship with al-Nueimi, a 25-year-old sergeant who was once questioned for suspected links to insurgent factions. (Like many Iraqis, the two attackers use last names that identify their family and clan ties, but the wanted poster issued by the U.S. military identifies them by their formal names: Sa'ad Ahmed Jasim Hweesh for al-Jabouri and Mohammed Mowfhq Abdulrahman Isa for al-Nueimi.) Kurdish security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, described al-Nueimi as a midlevel Baath Party operative who worked in the Mosul area fixing water tanks before the war. In 2004, he landed a job as a security guard at Mosul's airport and joined the police force a year later, possibly hiding his family's Saddam-era background, the officials said. They also claim that al-Nueimi carried on a parallel life with an underground group sometimes known as the Naqshabandi Army, a network of former military officers and jihadists with possible ties to fugitive Saddam deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. Last year, al-Nueimi was questioned by Iraqi authorities for suspected links to al-Qaida in Iraq, but was released for lack of evidence, the Kurdish officials said. "It seems we have the evidence now," said the Interior Ministry spokesman Khalaf. The ambush killed a 36-year-old soldier from the Tennessee National Guard, 1st Lt. William E. Emmert, along with an Iraqi interpreter. At home, Emmert, of Fayetteville, Tennessee, worked as a field agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations. Three U.S. soldiers, an Iraqi police office and interpreter were injured. Iraqi officials suspect the two wanted officers have fled to nearby Syria. "This was an isolated incident and certainly not indicative of any larger underlying problem with the Iraqi police," said military spokeswoman Maj. Ramona Bellard. But wary authorities are still trying to dig up suspected traitors. On Tuesday, a police commissioner was implicated as part of an alleged al-Qaida-linked ring accused of cars bombings around Iraq and the slayings of at least 28 security personnel. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article 0 users recommend Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: World Tour bus crash on So. 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