Kurdish fighters did go into Kirkuk and Mosul - two strategic northern cities - ahead of US troops.
Soldiers also cut road access from Baghdad and the northern cities of Salahuddin and Mosul to Kirkuk on Tuesday.
Again, the Iraqis have been pulling back without much of a fight and consolidating their positions around Kirkuk and Mosul.
Blasts and shootings in Tarmiyah and Mosul killed seven other people.
Iraq's multiple fault-lines are especially visible and occasionally bloody in Nineveh and Mosul.
On Tuesday, bombings in Baquba and Mosul in northern Iraq, Ramadi in western Iraq, and Baghdad killed another 60 people and wounded more than 100.
When the area was part of the Ottoman Empire prior to World War One, it was three separate provinces centered on Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, in recognition of its ethnic diversity.
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Recent attacks in Baghdad and Mosul the first and second cities in Iraq and the most violent have featured several staggered blasts, aimed to kill and maim both the initial targets and their rescuers.
Sunni militants long have crossed the border from Syria into Iraq to stage attacks, and Mosul's diverse, cosmopolitan population has made it an easy place for jihadist operatives to hide, he said.
The raids, conducted in Kirkuk and Mosul, were part of an ongoing effort to "put pressure on al Qaeda's networks to squeeze them out of their hiding places, " spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, Lt.
Asked about the two volatile regions of Baquba and Mosul, north of Baghdad, Odierno said he believes troops will withdraw from Baquba, but noted that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will have to make a decision about Mosul, where al Qaeda in Iraq militants have been active.
Matsuura called for protection of the Archaeological Museum of Baghdad and the Mosul Museum and other institutions in the Baghdad region.
The worst areas are now Diyala province and around Mosul, a bedrock of Baathists who were loyal to Saddam Hussein.
Aside from the night of March 21st, the bombardment of Baghdad and of other cities such as Kirkuk, Mosul and Tikrit by aircraft and cruise missiles has been less destructive than was widely expected.
He quickly moved tens of thousands of Kurds to the south, cleared a five-mile-wide buffer zone along most of the Iranian border, and began massive industrial developments around the Kurdish towns of Mosul and Erbil in an attempt to buy the Kurds' affections.
Both were from Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle and served in Mosul, Iraq, then saw fighting in Najaf and Karbala as well as action in Baghdad.
The success of those two efforts has pushed a lot of the insurgents out of those areas and caused them to flee to parts of northern Iraq like Mosul and in particular Diyala province.
The destruction, damage and theft of artifacts took place "notably" in Baghdad, Mosul and Tikrit, the agency said.
One Task Force Lightning soldier died and another soldier was injured in the incident, which occurred in Nineveh province, where Mosul and Tal Afar are located.
Earlier this year the archbishop of the ancient Chaldean church was abducted in Mosul and murdered.
At the top of his to-do list: resuscitating a power station in the capital, a bridge in Mosul and water supplies in Basra.
The northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, major oil-producing centers, were the target of bombing for the third night in a row Saturday night.
Backed by U.S. soldiers, Iraqi forces have been conducting an offensive against al Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul and the rest of Nineveh province.
Heavy fighting was reported in the northern city of Mosul and an American military helicopter was shot down near the southern city of Najaf.
Three large cities to the north of Baghdad -- Tikrit, Mosul and Kirkuk -- remain outside coalition control, as do the northern oil fields.
But the presence of large numbers of Kurdish fighters in both Mosul and oil-rich Kirkuk has caused great consternation north of the border in Turkey.
We'll still have forces up north in Mosul and we'll still have forces down south in the Basra area, but they really are (unintelligible) force.
In January 2006, 16 people were killed and 20 people were injured when attackers struck churches in Baghdad, Mosul, and Kirkuk as well as the Vatican Embassy.
In January, bombers struck six church buildings in Mosul and Baghdad on Epiphany and Orthodox Christmas Eve, feast dates when many Catholic and Syriac Orthodox Iraqis hold baptisms.
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