Middle East

Readers who don’t read blogs on weekends should nevertheless look at my Sunday column on ‘The Real State of Iraq’. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Awakening Councils are afraid they will be discarded by their American sponsors. Abi Abd, formerly a guerilla in the “Islamic Army,” formed the “Knights of Amiriya” in the Sunni […]

American television loves natural disasters. The Burmese cyclones that may have carried off as many as 200,000 people offered the cameras high drama. The floods in Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri along the Mississippi River, which have wiped out thousands of homes, have been carefully detailed hour by hour. But American television is little interested in […]

An American soldier was killed and five were wounded by roadside bombs on Friday in Diyala Province northeast of Baghdad. Congress passed a $161 bn. budget for the Iraq War, with a bit for Afghanistan in it, but failed to get language about a timetable for troop withdrawal included. If Americans dislike this outcome, they […]

The consortium of American and European oil companies that had dominated Iraqi petroleum in the twentieth century is returning to Iraq to carry out service agreements aimed at expanding production in four southern oil fields. Jonathan Steele reports, ‘ But the deals, known as service contracts, are unusual, said Greg Mutitt, co-director of Platform, an […]

Iraqi government troops began fanning through Amara and other towns of Maysan Province in the Shiite South on Thursday morning. Shiite militiamen, having been given three days to put away their heavier weapons, appear to have largely melted away for the time being. There were no reported clashes, and the army did not declare a […]

Guerrillas detonated a massive bomb in a Shiite market in north Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 51 and injuring 75. The bomb levelled a two-story building and set ablaze 20 shops. (Courtesy Farsnews). McClatchy says that US military sources suspect a rogue Shiite group of being responsible for the bombing, speculating that the blast may have […]

Two bombings near a university in Baghdad killed 2 and wounded 23 persons on Monday. 3 GIs were announced killed on Monday in separate incidents. Some 15 Iraqis were estimated killed in political violence, with 43 wounded. The Sadr Movement says it will not oppose the planned military operation in Amara as long as the […]

Salah al-Ubaidi, a spokesman for the Sadr Movement, says that it will not boycott the fall provincial elections, exactly. The Movement will not run candidates under its own name, but will rather have some Sadrists run on other party lists, and will through support behind independents. This strategy is similar to that of the Muslim […]

A female suicide bomber injured 34 soccer fans and police in the town of Qara Tappah in Diyala Province, 75 miles northeast of Baghdad. The fans had poured into the street after watching Iraq beat China in a sports cafe. Likely this was an attack by a radical Sunni Arab cell on a largely Kurdish […]