Kurdish Peshmerga fighters

MOSUL, Iraq, April 12 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) - A Total of 20 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded since Friday, April 11, in fighting between Arabs and Kurds in the key northern Iraqi city of Mosul, hospital sources said.

"There are more than 200 wounded and 15 to 20 dead Arabs and Kurds since yesterday," said Muzahim Kawat, chief surgeon at the city's emergency hospital.

An AFP journalist here saw a number of Arabs and Kurds suffering gunshot wounds arrive at the hospital early Saturday, April 12, afternoon.

Sporadic small-arms fire seemed to intensify Saturday in the city.

"There is shooting from everywhere," from both the Kurdish and Arab sides, said a U.S. soldier responsible for guarding the hospital.

Earlier Saturday, the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera had reported that calm was gradually returning to Mosul after two days of pillaging that followed the withdrawal of Iraqi forces and the entry of Kurdish fighters.

Kurdish forces had taken over major intersections and armed men were patrolling major roads leading into the city, recovering items that had been stolen, according to Al-Jazeera correspondent here.

From Mosul's mosques, appeals were going out to police officials of the deposed regime to return to their duties.

The city's defenders surrendered Friday afternoon and U.S. special forces began to enter Mosul several hours later.

Mosul, 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of Baghdad, is an Arab-majority enclave of 1.5 million inhabitants in the mostly Kurdish north and surrounded by oil fields.

It is also strategically important because of its airport and an Iraqi missile-launching base.