Juan Cole

*Iraqi guerrillas mounted three separate attacks in Iraq on Wednesday, killing two US troops and wounding 10. Two of the attacks were launched in Mosul and are therefore likely to be attempts at payback for the killing there the day before of Uday and Qusay. Another of the attacks was launched near Ramadi in the […]

*On the question of whether the killing of Uday and Qusay on Tuesday will improve the security posture in Iraq, I doubt it. As Con Coughlin noted, in the short term attacks by Baath loyalists and Sunni radicals on US troops may increase, in order precisely to demonstrate that they have not lost heart. But […]

*Iraqi guerrillas attacked a US military convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun fire, killing two soldiers and injuring a third. The attack came near Tel Afar, west of Mosul. All the casualties were from the 101st Airborne Division. *There was another big demonstration in Najaf on Sunday, several thousand strong, by supporters of Muqtada […]

*A U.S. soldier was killed in Baghdad by a sniper on Saturday while guarding a bank. Four U.S. troops were wounded when their convoy was struck by a remote control bomb. *Over 3,000* Shiite demonstrators came out into the streets of Baghdad on Saturday, according to AFP, to protest the US military’s action in surrounding […]

*Al-Hayat reported that Adnan Pachachi and another member of the Iraq Governing Council are in Rome for a conference of socialists. Asked about recognizing Israel, Pachachi replied that Iraq is a member of the Arab League and would abide by League policy in this regard. Apparently Ahmad Chalabi, another GC member, had earlier given the […]

*Two American servicemen were killed in Iraq on Friday, AP says. Someone shot and killed a soldier from the U.S. 1st Infantry Division in Baghdad about 5:30 p.m. yesterday according to Corp. Todd Pruden, a spokesman for the military. Also on Friday afternoon, in Falluja a guerrilla set off a remote controlled bomb as a […]

*A Sunni group in Basra (pop. 1.3 million) is calling for massive Sunni demonstrations after Friday prayers today, in protest of the occupation on Wednesday by the Sadr Movement of a building housing the headquarters of the Sunni Pious Endowments administration (-al-Hayat). In a telephone call from Kuwait to al-Hayat, the Sunni activist warned of […]

*Another rocket propelled grenade attack killed one American soldier and wounded three others on Wednesday, near the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. Also, in West Baghdad a guerrilla tossed a grenade into a US military vehicle that was guarding a bank, killing an 8-year-old Iraqi child and wounding the American driver. Yet more assailants […]

*US forces were ambushed while leaving an ammunition depot between the cities of Ramadi and Habbaniya on Tuesday, but took no casualties. They fought back, killing five Iraqis and capturing one. *There have been five attacks on US troops in the largely Shiite town of Miqdadiya (pop. 300,000), 50 miles north of Baghdad, in recent […]