BAGHDAD, Nov. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- US-Iraqi troops are locked in battles with insurgents in the northern Iraq city of Mosul Sunday,reports reaching here said.

    The battle was aimed at wresting back control of a police station, which was taken by rebels earlier Sunday.The clashes were mainly centered on the city center with both sides exchanging fire, witnesses said.

    Parts of Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq, were now virtually in rebels' hand after insurgents stormed and took control of several police stations last week.

    After that, the police chief of the city, some 400 km north of Baghdad, was sacked and reinforcement of the Iraqi National Guard was dispatched.

    However, the US military in the city said despite the police station attack, order and security have been restored.Violence in the north coincided with a full-scale military assault spearheaded by US-Iraqi forces in Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim flashpoint city some 50 km west of Baghdad.

    The campaign, designed to retake the rebel-held city to pacify security situations before a January election, was declared over Sunday. Enditem