Juan Cole

3000 Iranian Pilgrims a Day foreseen for Iraq According to AFP, another son of SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Muhsin al-Hakim, announced that he had negotiated a deal with the Interim Governing Council and the Iranian government to allow 3,000 Iranian pilgrims to enter Iraq every day. If the negotiated number of pilgrims actually came, […]

Sunnis Gear up to Resist Shiite Rule Meanwhile, Rich Potter of the Toronto Star reports that the resistance to the US occupation in Falluja is Sunni Arab nationalist in character, and is rejecting both Saddam and the prospect of majority-Shiite rule. One has the impression that some people in Falluja may be blowing up things […]

Sistani Calls for UN Decision According to the Gulf Daily News, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani stands by his ruling that Iraq should go to early general elections on a one-person, one-vote basis. According to IGC member Muwaffak al-Rubaie, however, Sistani has indicated that he would back down on one condition. If Kofi Annan appoints a […]

1 US Soldier Killed, 14 wounded Three guerrillas drove a car filled with explosives near the Champion US Army Base at Ramadi on Thursday and blew themselves up, killing one soldier, wounding 3 badly enough to be taken to a combat field hospital, and lightly wounding 11 others (they got hit by flying glass and […]

Fadlallah Discourages formation of Militias Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, who resides in Beirut, Lebanon, has long had a following inside Iraq. He was born and educated in Najaf and is an Iraqi. The Shiite al-Da`wa Party is said to favor him. According to al-Sharq al-Awsat, he was asked recently by Iraqi Shiites if the […]

IGC Negotiates with Sistani The Interim Governing Council sent a delegate Thursday to conduct talks with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, which were described as “tough but sincere.” (-AFP via ash-Sharq al-Awsat). They discussed the instruments whereby sovereignty would be transferred to the Iraqi people from the Coalition Provisional Authority on July 1, 2004. The delegation […]

Wolfowitz throws Tantrum at France, Germany, Russia and Canada: The Failure of Emotional Intelligence It transpires that the Pentagon order denying Iraq reconstruction contracts to France, Germany, Russia and Canada was issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. It created enormous anger in the US allies of NATO. They feel that they have been […]

2 US Troops Killed, 4 Wounded in Mosul Guerrillas killed 2 US troops in a roadside bombing and a shoot-out in two separate incidents in Mosul on Wednesday. Four others were wounded in the engagements. US troops returning fire shot and killed a civilian Iraqi driver, later identified as a a member of a Kurdish […]

Shiite Mosque attacked Unknown assailants razed a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Wednesday. According to local eyewitnesses, the act was revenge for the bombing of a Sunni mosque on Tuesday, which killed 4 persons. The caretaker of the Shiite mosque maintained that the attackers had come from the funeral procession for those killed at the […]