Juan Cole

Thousands of Sadrists Rally for Hizbullah in Baghdad Guerrilla Uprising in Mosul Some 100,000 Sadrists rallied against Israel’s war on Lebanon [Ar.] in Sadr City on Friday, their ranks swelled by an influx of demonstrators from Maysan and Wasit provinces. Al-Zaman notes that this demonstration comes two days after a similar big event for the […]

Israelis Kill 7 Civilians in Massive Air Raids on Beirut, South, Baalbak Hizbullah Rockets Kill 8 Civilians in Israel Israel resumed a heavy bombardment of South Beirut on Thursday, hitting al-Awza’i 24 times in the space of two hours. There are no Hizbullah facilities in al-Awza’i, according to LBC (a Christian-owned Lebanese satellite channel). AFP […]

38 Dead, including 2 Sadrists Killed by US US, UK Officials Admit Slide toward Civil War : Reuters says that 24 persons were killed or reported dead on Thursday. But 2 of the wounded Sadrists later died, and it doesn’t seem to know about the 9 bodies dragged from the Tigris or the shootings in […]

McGreevy: “Justice” Comes to Qana Patrick McGreevy writes from Beirut: “Justice” Comes to Qana ‘ The attacks of 11 September 2001 gave many ordinary Americans a palpable experience of injustice. Addressing both houses of Congress nine days later, President Bush proclaimed: “Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our […]

HRW: Israel Guilty of War Crimes Human Rights Watch, after extensive investigation, has concluded that the Israeli military is guilty of war crimes. HRW says: Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of […]

56 Dead in Iraq Violence Spike in Attacks on US Troops out of Anger over Israel It’s Iraq, Stupid, concludes the Trib on the basis of a new Gallup poll that shows this subject is the number one concern of about a third of voters. Two more US troops were killed by guerrillas in al-Anbar […]

190 Hizbullah Rockets Rain down on Israel 21 Wounded There had been some question about whether Hizbullah’s ability to hit Israel with rockets had been degraded, or whether it was just observing the 48 hour air cease fire. On Wednesday it cleared the mystery up. The indiscriminate firing of rockets on civilian targets wounded 21 […]

Karen Hughes Denies Israel Has Blank Check Fierce Fighting at Aita al-Shaab, Baalbak Karen Hughes, W.’s official in charge of public diplomacy to the Muslim world, must be about the loneliest person in the world right now. The Neocons inside the administration have been trying to undermine her, from what I hear in Washington (since […]

70 Killed in Civil Violence 45 Pilgrims Kidnapped Grand Ayatollahs Turn on Shiite Government? Amid a wave of bombings and violence on Tuesday, among the more dangerous developments was the kidnapping in al-Anbar Province of some 45 Shiite pilgrims on their way back up north after a pilgrimage to the holy city of Najaf. Given […]