U.S. military spokesmen say more than 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are moving from large bases on the fringe of Mosul and setting up COPs -- combat operations posts -- in the explosive western side of the city as well as in portions of the east across the Tigris River.

Elements from Iraq's 2nd and 3rd Divisions, with Americans in support roles, are conducting community presence patrols, developing intelligence sources and springing raids on suspected terrorist lairs.

"The decisive campaign is happening now as we speak," said Army Lt. Col. Keith Barclay, commander of the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. "Control of the city is being established.

"You've got to control the ground. If we're not doing so, the people will support the biggest (terrorist) bully on the block. We have to be like a teacher on the playground."

Mosul is Iraq's second-largest city with a population of about 1.8 million. Two-thirds of Mosulis, also called Maslawi, people are Sunni Arabs, with Shiite Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians making up most of the remainder. Christians are also present.

U.S. authorities here often compare them to New Yorkers -- fiercely proud of their city and their cosmopolitan mix. But Mosulis are also xenophobic, harboring a distrust -- if not dislike -- of "foreigners" (non-Mosulis), which could complicate efforts to build relationships of trust between Mosulis and U.S. forces and between Mosul's governing officials and the Shiite-dominated central government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Maliki, speaking at a Baghdad news conference last month, announced the "decisive" battle against al-Qaida in Mosul, the terror group's last urban stronghold, was about to begin. Additional troops and police were being pushed north from Baghdad, he said.

So far there have been no major street battles. Each side, instead, appears to be shaping the battle space.

Barclay said there are reports that al-Qaida, pushed out in the main from Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala and other provinces, is attempting in Mosul to establish links with other terrorist and insurgent groups to coordinate attacks. Among those groups are those they have fought against themselves or are ideologically at odds with.

There's the Islamic State of Iraq group, which is considered an al-Qaida creation with a nationalist face; the Sunni nationalist Ansar al-Sunna; and Jaish Islamiya and the 1920 Revolution Brigades, both of which are composed of former Baathists and Saddam Hussein soldiers.

"What they are trying to do is bring a fractured insurgency together into a less fractured one," a U.S. officer said.

Whether AQI and the others put aside differences to effectively cooperate to battle U.S. and Iraqi forces is a matter of speculation. But as an Iraqi interpreter said to a U.S. soldier on patrol: "Careful. This is Mosul. Anything is possible in Mosul."

U.S. authorities say there are no clear indications of foreign terrorists crossing the nearby border from Syria to join in a major outbreak of street fighting, but what "we do see are foreigner fighters coming from other places in Iraq."

An outbreak of major fighting could erupt next month with the passing of winter temperatures and rain. Meanwhile, successful or attempted attacks on Iraqi and U.S. forces continue at a steady beat -- between 12 to 25 significant acts a day, at least half of them involving improvised explosive devices, including car bombs.

Officers of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, based on the edge of the city, said at least 18 COPs are being built in strategic neighborhoods by U.S. troops and will be manned by U.S. and Iraqi army units, which work in conjunction in providing security for local residents, which means keeping terrorists from returning once driven out. High on the list of problem districts in the western portion of Mosul are al-Uruba, al-Rissala and al-Yarmook. To the east are Domiz Somer, Palestine and al-Intisar. To the north is al-Rashidayah, where an influx of displaced persons from elsewhere is causing concern. Unconfirmed reports say some of the strangers are pushing people out of their homes through physical threats.

"This was our third choice for a COP," said 1st Sgt. Bryan Flading of Westerville, Ohio. "When we surveyed our first two choices (multistoried buildings closer to a main road junction), they (terrorists) blew them up before we could move in."

Flading and men of Killer Company, 3rd Squadron, 3rd ACR, live with 30 Iraqi counterparts in the courtyard of a bombed-out municipal building, within eye and sniper shot of two mosques and other tall structures in the al-Uruba District. The main shopping street outside the COP is deserted. It's just a broad expanse of mainly bombed-out buildings. What buildings are standing are pockmarked with bullet holes. Behind are neighborhoods like 20th St., an ISI-influenced community.

Stepping from his Humvee for a quick meet-and-greet patrol, Flading quickly grasped the challenge ahead for him and U.S. forces: Children playing in the street quickly ran off and then watched cautiously from a safe distance of a block away; people retreated into their homes and shut the gates behind them.

Two distant gunshots sounded in the distance from behind him, soon followed by several other shots from the opposite direction, then from a third. It was as if the patrol was being taunted.

"Let the games begin," Flading muttered aloud. "Let the games begin."

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