[Mavdog]

I mean if they know where the insurgents are (as he says he does), why the heck haven't they gone after them?
Is the police training being led by Maxwell Smart?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Iraqi Police Chief Threatens Militant Crackdown

Wed Feb 2,10:09 AM ET

By Maher al-Thanoon

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - The chief of police in the Iraqi city of Mosul has given insurgents two weeks to give up their weapons or face a crackdown by security forces emboldened after the election.

But al Qaeda militants in Iraq (news - web sites) issued a new threat to assassinate the northern city's governor.

"Hand over your weapons or we will come and get you," police chief Brigadier Mohammed Ahmed al-Jabouri said in a television address on Tuesday.

The ultimatum came two days after Iraq held successful national elections despite insurgent threats.

Jabouri said his message, aired on a provincial TV channel, was particularly aimed at insurgents hiding in towns and villages around Mosul, Iraq's third largest city.

Al Qaeda Organization in Iraq released a new video on a militant Web site vowing to assassinate Mosul's governor for denouncing the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as unIslamic.

The video showed three masked gunmen, sitting in front of a black banner, one of them reading the statement.

Jabouri said his men knew where the insurgents were and were not afraid to come after them. He said he was giving them until Feb. 15 to hand in their weapons but gave no details about how they should do this.

On Monday, police paraded seven suspected insurgents on the same TV channel after they were detained in a series of election-day raids. They are believed to be members of Zarqawi's group.

Jabouri's tough talk is an abrupt turnaround for the Mosul police -- two months ago virtually the entire police force deserted after rebels launched an offensive against them. Dozens of police stations were overrun, looted and then destroyed.

The chief of police was fired and Jabouri appointed shortly afterwards. Until Tuesday's TV spot, he had kept a low profile.

Mosul has been a focal point of insurgent activity over the past few months -- a suicide bomber killed more than 20 people in an attack on a U.S. base in December -- and there were fears of a militant onslaught on election day.

But in the event, voting went much better than expected and there were few incidents, U.S. military officers said. The degree of success appears to have bolstered local security chiefs' confidence and they are keen to build on the momentum.

In Mosul, as in the rest of Iraq, a huge security operation was put in place on election day, with an estimated 250,000 Iraqi, U.S. and other foreign troops on the streets. Civilian cars were banned, a curfew imposed and borders closed.

Iraq's interior minister said the unprecedented measures were successful in keeping election day relatively calm, even though insurgents still managed to kill at least 35 people in a series of suicide bomb and mortar attacks countrywide.

In raids throughout the country on the day, more than 200 suspected insurgents were detained, the interior minister said