Libyans setting off bombs in Iraq !!! But I thought Bush and Qadaffywere the best of friends ????

Could it be that no one is paying any attention to Bush any longer?

( If they ever did. )

A devastating explosion in northern Iraq was spearheaded by foreign

fighters under the sponsorship of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of the

Libyan leader, a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up

against al-Qaida in Iraq said Saturday.

Col. Jubair Rashid Naief, who also is a police official in Anbar

province, said the Anbar Awakening Council had alerted the U.S.

military to the possible arrival in the northern city of Mosul of the

Seifaddin Regiment, made up of about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters,

as long as three months ago.

The U.S. military did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for

comment about Naief's claim.

"They crossed the Syrian border nearest to Mosul within the last two

to three months. Since then, they have taken up positions in the city

and begun blowing up cars and launching other terror operations,"

Naief told The Associated Press.

The so-called Anbar Awakening Council is a grouping of Sunni tribes in

the western province that last year turned against al-Qaida and began

working with U.S. forces. The council is credited with the sharp drop

in violence in the former insurgent redoubt.

The movement has since been spread by Americans through Baghdad and

surrounding districts. That and the introduction of 30,000 additional

U.S. troops by mid-2007 are seen as the main factors in the recent

decline in violence in the country.

Naief did not explain why the younger Gadhafi would be sponsoring the

group of fighters. Seif Gadhafi, however, was quoted by the Austrian

Press Agency last year as warning Europeans against more attacks by

radical Islamists.

"The only solution to contain radicalism is the rapid departure of

Western troops from Iraq as well as Afghanistan, and a solution to the

Palestinian question," Gadhafi was quoted as saying.

Touted as a reformer, 36-year-old Gadhafi has increasingly been

sharing his father's spotlight and reaching out to the West to soften

Libya's image and return it to the international mainstream. He has no

official government post, but many see him as the man most likely to

take power in the North African country when his father steps down or

dies.

The massive explosion in Mosul on Wednesday and the suicide attack

assassination of a top police official the next day have prompted

obvious concern among Iraq's leaders.

On Friday, the government said it would dispatch several thousand more

security forces to Mosul in a "decisive" bid to drive al-Qaida in Iraq

from its last major stronghold.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave no details on troop strength or

timing, but his announcement added to growing signs that Mosul could

represent a pivotal showdown with insurgents chased north by U.S.-led

offensives.

"Today, our troops started moving toward Mosul ... and the fight there

will be decisive," al-Maliki said during a speech in the Shiite holy

city of Karbala.

The challenge, however, is whether the Iraqi forces have the firepower

and training to lead an offensive into Iraq's third-largest city. The

U.S. military is relatively thin across northern Iraq and has signaled

no immediate plans to shift troops from key zones in and around

Baghdad.

Mosul is now considered the main logistical hub for al-Qaida in Iraq

because of its size and location -- sitting at crossroads between

Baghdad, Syria, Turkey and Iran. Many extremists fled north as U.S.-

led forces began gaining ground in former insurgent strongholds last

year, aided by Sunni tribes that rose up against al-Qaida and its

backers.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told The

Associated Press that 3,000 police were being sent to the Mosul region

to augment the understaffed force.

Ninevah province, whose capital is Mosul, has about 18,000 policemen.

But only about 3,000 of those operate in the city of nearly 2 million,

according to police spokesman Saeed al-Jubouri.

A Defense Ministry official said several thousand Iraqi soldiers would

be moved from Baghdad and Anbar province. He spoke on condition of

anonymity because the information is sensitive.

"We have asked the prime minister to send us fresh units because we

cannot defeat the terrorists with the weak units we have now in the

city," Maj. Gen. Riyad Jalal, a senior Iraqi officer in the Mosul

area. "We need new equipment and stronger weapons because most of our

security members have only rifles."

Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has become a fulcrum on two

fronts.

First the United States is trying to keep Iraqi security forces in the

lead as a major test of Washington's long-range plans, which seek to

keep a smaller American force in Iraq as backup for local soldiers and

police.

Second, U.S. officials say Mosul has become the only remaining major

city in Iraq where al-Qaida is able to operate with any freedom. Major

centers of al-Qaida activity in the past -- including the western Anbar

province, Baghdad and Baqouba north of the capital -- no longer offer

easy refuge.

Al-Maliki announced reinforcements for Mosul two days after an

abandoned apartment building, believed to be used as a bomb-making

factory, was blown apart as the Iraqi army was investigating tips

about a weapons cache.

At least 34 people were killed and 224 wounded when the blast tore

through surrounding houses in the Zanjili neighborhood, a poverty-

ridden district on the west bank of the Tigris River. No soldiers were

reported killed.

A suicide bomber then killed a police chief and two other officers

Thursday as they toured the devastation. Residents taunted the chief

and pelted him with rocks moments before he was killed.