Middle East

Gen. John Abizaid at Stanford U.: ‘ While [panelists] discussed green technology, the subject of America’s operations in Iraq was also a hotly debated topic. Abizaid, who was formerly the Commander of the United States Central Command, quickly established a connection between the two topics. “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” […]

The Turkish parliament authorized a Turkish incursion into Iraq in pursuit of guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). Syria threw its support behind Turkey on this issue. Syria has 2 million Kurds of its own, in a population of 19 million [plus 1.4 million Iraqi refugees]. Bashar al-Asad fears Kurdish nationalism as a threat […]

The tensions between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan contributed to jitteriness in the oil markets that drove the prices to as high as $88.20 at one point on Tuesday before falling back to over $87. The oil price spike in turn frightened investors and hit stock markets around the world. The United States consumes about 21 […]

Shiite militiamen rained mortar shells on the Polish base at Diwaniya on Monday, and the fighting that thus broke out left 4 civilians, 3 gunmen, and at least 5 Iraqi children dead, along with 28 wounded. 15 houses were also partially destroyed in the fighting. The Polish ambassador was targeted, recently, as well. The recent […]

The sectarian civil war in Iraq left dozens of persons dead and wounded on Sunday. One major bombing targeted Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad heading to the shrine of Kadhimiya, in the north of the capital, killing 10 persons in a minibus, including women and children, and wounding two dozen. There were other bombings and firefights, […]

The USG Open Source Center rounds up this week’s sermons at major mosques, mostly Shiite, in Iraq. The comments focus on the peace agreement between Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militias had been fighting with one another; on the danger posed by the Sunni tribal militias called ‘Awakening Councils;’ on the recent statements […]

The killing of two US soldiers and the wounding of 5 more in a mortar attack were reported on Saturday. Sawt al-Iraq reports in Arabic that Abdul Aziz al-Hakim (leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq) returned to Baghdad from chemotherapy in Iran and was welcomed by a big crowd of admirers at his […]

The USG Open Source Center translates or paraphrases reports in the Iraqi press on the sermon of Abdul Mahdi al-Karbala’i, the representative in the holy city of Karbala of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, calling for parliament to regulate foreign security firms and ‘occupation forces’ (i.e. the US military) operating in the country. Al-Karbala’is sermons are […]