Juan Cole

Samarra in Chaos Az-Zaman reports that informed sources tell it that the city of Samarra is still in a state of complete chaos, after an armed group established domination there when the American forces withdrew at the end of June. The sources maintain that gunmen blew up the headquarters of the political party of Interior […]

The Crisis in Yemen: Guest Comment by Willis John M. Willis, who has taught Middle East at New York University’s Dept. of Education, writes in about Yemen: ‘ I just wanted to add a few notes to your reading of the recent violence in Haydan outside of Sa’dah in northern Yemen. The recent violence instigated […]

2 US Pilots Wounded; Mortar Strike in Basra Guerrillas in the southern port city of Basra fired mortar rounds at the local government headquarters, but missed and hit local houses instead, killing one Iraqi civilian and wounding four others. Largely Shiite Basra has been quieter than some other parts of Iraq, but has witnessed some […]

Pipeline Blast Further Limits Iraqi Exports For the second day in a row on Sunday, guerrillas attacked a key north-south pipeline in Iraq. The damage further limited Iraqi exports, which had been halved by the Saturday sabotage.

Allawi: Considering Arab Troops George Stephanopoulos interviewed Iyad Allawi on Sunday and did what I thought was an excellent job. He pressed Allawi on the issue of Muqtada al-Sadr, and received the response that al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army might well be amnestied if they cooperate with the caretaker government and seek to join the […]

Karpinski Says Israelis Were at Abu Ghraib Brigadier General Janis Karpinski alleged Sunday that Israeli interrogators were active at Abu Ghuraib prison. She said she even met one who admitted his nationality to her. AP reports her saying, ‘ “I saw an individual there that I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet before, and I […]

Quiet Ethnic Cleansing of Shiites by Sunni Jihadis? A European reader with good Iraq contacts passes along a very interesting but frightening account of severe Sunni-Shiite tensions in the mixed areas around Baghdad. I have occasionally seen reports in the Arabic press of Muqtada al-Sadr’s followers usurping Sunni mosques and attacking Sunnis. Given the hatred […]

Iranian Influence on Iraqi Shiites Ed Wong of the New York Times has a fine piece Saturday on Iranian influence on Iraqi Shiites. It seems pretty clear that the Iranians are giving money to various Shiite groups, though they are spreading it around so widely that it seems likely they are like some American lobbyists, […]

2 Marines Die Friday The Washington Post reports: ‘ The U.S. military reported that a Marine was killed in combat Friday and a second died of wounds sustained a day earlier in a restive province west of Baghdad that contains the city of Fallujah, the target of several U.S. air strikes over the past week. […]