Juan Cole

Riot at Imam Ali Shrine; Clashes in Sadr City al-Hayat and ash-Sharq al-Awsat: Sadr City: A Sadrist spokesman said late Friday that one Mahdi Army militiaman was killed and several others were wounded in clashes with American forces in Sadr City, Baghdad. Reuters television footage showed Muqtada’s fighters firing machine guns and tossing hand grenades […]

Samarra’i calls for Military Resistance Sunni preacher Shaikh Ahmad al-Samarra’i accused Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of being an American agent in his sermon on Friday. He addressed Allawi from the pulpit, saying, “Have all noble persons disappeared, that you have come and sought assistance from foreigners?” AFP adds: ‘ And in one of Baghdad’s largest […]

Iraqis working for the US Live in Fear AFP continues its excellent tradition of covering Iraq from the ground up(in this case the eastern city of Baqubah) with a fine piece about the fear in which Iraqis live who work for the Americans. Many translators have been killed, and others are getting death threats. Many […]

Did Prohibiting Local Elections Derail Iraq? Professor Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago earlier authored a prescient paper, ,”How to Build Democracy in Iraq.” He now writes: “In recent weeks, political reporters have done much to clarify the development of prisoner-interrogation policies in Iraq. I hope that similar efforts might clarify the decision-making process […]

Mahdi Army Takes Police Station in Najaf Fighting continued in Najaf on Thursday, though US troops stayed out of it and let the Najaf police chief handle the situation. The Mahdi Army appears to have done severe damage to the police station. There was attendant fighting in Sadr City between the US and radical Shiites […]

Chirac Politely takes on Bush AFP reports that on a number of occasions French president Jacques Chirac exhibited independence from the Bush agenda. He wore a coat and tie at Sea Island, Georgia, despite President Bush’s request for informality. He refused to see NATO troops sent to Iraq. On NATO, according to AP he said […]

Violence in Iraq Insurgents killed 12 Iraqi soldiers of the Fallujah Brigade in Fallujah on Wednesday. This is the first time that insurgents targeted the indigenous Iraqi brigade. It has now been revealed that 10 US troops were wounded in carbomb attacks on Tuesday. Likewise, Mahdi Army irregular attacked Najaf police on Wednesday and Thursday.

Kurdish Anger Rising Update: Although the New York Times alleged Thursday morning that Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had tried to defuse the crisis with the Kurds by committing his government to the TAL or interim constitution, all was still not well in Kurdish-Shiite relations. Deputy PM Barham Saleh got in a snit and went home […]

Political Obituary for the Neocons Paul Richter of the Los Angeles Times has done another political obituary of the neoconservative movement, which has fallen on hard times. He notes that it is highly unlikely that Congress would now confirm Paul Wolfowitz or Douglas Feith for higher office (Wolfowitz had once been rumored as a candidate […]