29 Bodies Found in Baghdad Erdogan Warns on PKK 29 bodies were found in Baghdad on Wednesday, according to McClatchy. There was also mortar fire in Baghdad, an attack on police in Mahawil, and US military clashes with the Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. About that orphanage that the Iraqi government was running, […]
Everyday Apocolypse In Iraq War Of
Everyday Apocalypse in Iraq War of the Mosques 142 Dead on Tuesday 142 persons were killed or found dead on Tuesday, and Wednesday morning two Sunni mosques in towns south of Baghdad were blown up. On Tuesday, a huge truck bomb in Baghdad blew up a Shiite mosque dedicated to an important religious figure and […]
Vigil For Detained Iranian
Vigil for Detained Iranian Intellectuals Amnesty International is hosting a vigil in New York next week for three detained intellectuals, including my friend Haleh Esfandiari. I urge everyone who can attend, to do so, and make a special plea to fellow bloggers to publicize this event. (The bigger it is, the more successful it will […]
111 Killed Or Found Dead In Iraq On
111 Killed or Found Dead in Iraq on Monday Al-Maliki to Ankara Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has accepted the Turkish government’s invitation to visit Ankara. Al-Maliki says he is worried about PKK terrorism. Al-Maliki should be careful. When his predecessor, Ibrahim Jaafari, flew to Istanbul for talks on Kirkuk, the Kurds in the Iraqi […]
Situation In Gaza I Have Been Traveling
The Situation in Gaza I have been traveling and not able to spend as much time as usual scanning the news, but of course have followed the events in Palestine with dismay. It is to be expected that a lot of comment in the United States on these events will be rife with racist attitudes […]
Pkk Leader Warns Turkey On Incursions
PKK Leader Warns Turkey on Incursions Michael Howard of the Guardian interviewed a Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla commander in northern Iraq. Money graf: ‘The Turkish army faces “a political and military disaster” if its generals give orders for a cross-border offensive, Cemil Bayik, one of the two most powerful figures in the Kurdistan Workers […]
Kurds And Turks Will They Or Wont They
Kurds and Turks: Will they or Won’t They? Joshua Partlow has a good article in WaPo on the military friction at the Turkish-Iraqi border. It is based on interviews in Iraqi Kurdistan and with US military officials, however, and oddly lacks the perspective from Ankara. I was just at an International Relations conference at Middle […]
Us Paramilitary Casualties Covered Up
US Paramilitary Casualties Covered Up Sistani condemns Attacks on Sunni Shrines, Mosques Pakistan Rallies Condemn US Highly paid “security guards” play an essential role in the US war against Iraqi guerrillas. They form a paramilitary, which has inevitably taken great numbers of casualties (they sometimes actually guard US troops!) Turns out that they have been […]
Sunni Mosque Demolished Turks Plan
Sunni Mosque Demolished Turks Plan Buffer Zone inside Iraq An important, historic Sunni shrine south of Basra was blown up on Friday, raising fears of further Sunni-Shiite sectarian killings and reprisals, according to Alissa Rubin of the NYT. The town of Zubayr near Basra is largely Sunni, though it is situated in the overwhelmingly Shiite […]