MOSUL — Hundreds of Iraqi commandos stormed into the historic heart of this northern city yesterday as five people were killed in violence in Baghdad.

Piled into dozens of white pick-up trucks, the 400 soldiers were tasked with raiding a suspected rebel meeting place among the old quarter’s maze of alleyways.

Last week, Sunni Arab rebels went on the offensive in the city, overrunning several police stations and ransacking others.

US commanders said up to 100 insurgents were thought to be in the old quarter, among them rebel leaders, and that the aim of the operation was to draw them out into the open.

“We are finding the (insurgent) pockets with Iraqis, and going and asking them to come out and fight,” said Colonel Robert Brown, US military commander here.

“Every time they fight, we will kill a lot of them.”

The imminent showdown followed days of unrest in the city which has left at least 20 Iraqi security personnel and a US soldier dead, along with more than 50 insurgents, according to a US toll.

The violence was part of a flare-up across Sunni Arab areas following a massive US-led offensive in the western city of Fallujah on November 8.

Two people were killed in Baghdad yesterday when Iraqi national guardsmen raided a revered Sunni mosque after the main weekly prayers, sparking bloody clashes.

Medics said nine people were also wounded in the clashes inside the Abu Hanifa mosque, which had already been raided several times by US forces.

Some 200 to 300 national guardsmen stormed the place of worship, throwing sound grenades and firing shots in the air, an AFP correspondent said.

Between 30 and 40 people were rounded up by US troops who arrived on the scene later and withdrew in the afternoon.

During his sermon, the mosque imam had charged that after their onslaught on Fallujah, US forces would turn their attention to Latifiyah, another Sunni rebel stronghold immediately south of the capital that lies at the heart of a region dubbed the Triangle of Death.

Three more people died in the capital when a car bomb went off near a police patrol.

North-east of Mosul, another car bomb narrowly missed a US convoy but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Despite the continuing bloodshed, US commanders insisted they had now “broken the back” of the Iraq insurgency with their assault on Fallujah.

Sporadic clashes continued in the town 11 days after the launch of Operation Dawn.

The US military estimates that some 1200 insurgents have been killed for the loss of 51 US soldiers and eight Iraqi security personnel.

Lieutenant-General John Sattler said the city was secure but not yet safe.

“We feel right now that we have ... broken the back of the insurgency and we’ve taken away the safe haven,” he said, adding that this would force the insurgents to set up operations in less familiar areas with untested allies. — Sapa-AFP