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30 Killed in Iraq Violence; Kurds: Oil Contracts ‘Unconstitutional’

Juan Cole 06/23/2009

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Bombings and other violence left 30 dead in Iraq on Monday, and the three-day death toll is 100. Monday’s strikes included a bombing of a mini-bus with students aboard in Shiite Sadr City.

In my own view,the Shiites won the battle for Baghdad and largely ethnically cleansed the city of Sunni Arabs, who I suspect are now only 10-15% of the capital’s population. So this sort of terrorism is now more revenge than anything else, and it is hard to see what political change it could effect. It is just a way of keeping the pot boiling and challenging the ensconcing of the Shiite-dominated al-Maliki government.

The real danger ahead is Arab-Kurdish conflict in the north. In that regard, the building constitutional crisis between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the al-Maliki government in Baghdad over oil contracts is very bad news.

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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