4 US GIs killed
Army of Heaven Cult Arrested
A suicide bomber killed 7 in Mosul and wounded 28 at a police station.
Reuters reports political violence in Iraq on Tuesday. Guerrillas killed 3 US GIs north of Baghdad, and Shiite militiamen killed a fourth down at Diwaniyah. In Baghdad there were several bombings, one in Karrada that killed 5 and wounded 10. McClatchy reports that 17 bodies were found in Baghdad on Tuesday. On Monday 25 bodies had been found.
The Bush administration has suddenly changed course and decided to attend the meeting of the foreign ministries of countries that neighbor Iraq, in hopes of harnessing diplomacy to end the crisis. This step requires that the US be willing to talk to Iran at least informally about outstanding bilateral issues. It is among the few pieces of good news we have had from Washington.
Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said on Tuesday that Iraq violence has become self-sustaining. He denied sure knowledge of any direct link between the EFPs hitting US troops and the Iranian leadership.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that US and Iraqi troops near Diwaniya had arrested 142 members of the Army of Heaven Shiite militia.
posted by Juan Cole @ 2/28/2007 06:24:00 AM
Click to join Infoco
3 Comments:
The Iraq regional meetings have a good chance of success. The inclusion of the UNSC permanent five is particularly important, since it indicates non-agression guarantees for Iran and Syria -- the crux of the matter.
If this works out, it will also mean the official end of the neocon's influence, who would not have allowed it in a million years.
With the reversal of the Administration's position re: negotiations including Syrian and Iran, and McConnell's comments downplaying allegations of Iranian support for attacks on US troops, are we seeing a tide turning against the neocons in the Administration? Would a Libby conviction heighten that shift by further undermining the V-P (as if reality hasn't down the enough). Is it too much to hope that Rice and her faction have finally shifted positions on Iraq and diplomacy (and mustered the leverage to do something about it)?
regarding the members of the army of heaven:
Is it clear that they were the ones who were killed at Najaf on Jan. 28, 2007? Some other sources that I've read argue instead that it was the innocent Hawatimah Shi'ite tribe on their way to pilgrimage that were killed by Iraqi and U.S. troops. I know Prof. Cole covered this theory pretty thoroughly in his Jan. 31st dispatch, but I wondered if he (or others) had any further thoughts, such as in response to the article in the Asia Times of Feb. 2-- www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB02Ak04.html --where the reporters interviewed members of the Hawatimah tribe. Also, the article by Patrick Cockburn in The Independent of Jan. 31. discussed this possible theory and provided a more details of it than Prof. Cole's Jan. 31 summary of this theory did.
Certainly the messianic cult "Army of Heaven" exists, and they bought land near Najaf, but were they the ones who were killed on Jan. 28th? Could it have been Hawatimah tribesmen killed on land that had been bought by the Army of Heaven, and thus lies the connection to the Army of Heaven?
Just wondering if others have more clarity on this?
Post a Comment
<< Home