*I’ve just read several recent new reports on the Shiites of Iraq, and I am struck by how often people mention the authority they grant […]

AFP and ash-Sharq al-Awsat are reporting that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani (73) in Najaf issued a statement through is son, Muhammad Rida Ali Sistani, calling […]

Iraqi Shiites in the slums of Baghdad, which were once called al-Thawrah Towship and then Saddam City, have now renamed their neighborhood Sadr City after […]

The Iraq war has resulted in many human casualties that make any humane person want to weep. I hope the human sacrifice will have been […]

*Khu’i appears to have been killed in Najaf by a mob of radical followers of the 22-year-old Muqtada al-Sadr. His father had been a supporter […]

The events around the assassination of Shiite leader Abd al-Majid Khu’i in Najaf a couple of days ago remain murky. From what I can tell, […]

*Madinat Saddam, a Shiite area of 2 million in Baghdad, had already tossed out the Iraqi militiamen two days ago, it turns out. These desperately […]

*The British forces in Basra have announced that the battle for that city has just about ended. They have taken most of the important government […]

*Humanitarian disaster may loom in Basra if something isn’t done quickly. The city has fallen to British forces and some of the population has turned […]