Juan Cole

24 Found Dead Interior Minister Escapes Assassination The transcript of my appearance on the Lehrer News Hour is now online. Police patrols discovered 24 dead bodies in Baghdad on Wednesday, which had been strangled or shot. They were probably victims of sectarian reprisal killings. Another six were killed in bombings and other violence. Iraqi special […]

Kurdistan Islamic Party Will Vote Against Jaafari The USG-funded Open Source Center (formerly the Foreign Broadcast Information Service or FBIS) translates a Kurdish news article indicating that the Kurdistan Islamic Party will vote against Jaafari and generally will vote with the Kurdistan Alliance. (The latter announcement contradicts an earlier statement from the party.) ‘ Kurdish […]

Khalilzad meets al-Hakim Reuters reports several bombs and attacks in Baghdad, as well as in Baqubah, Khalis, Kirkuk and elsewhere, leaving over a dozen dead. Significant items include the assassination of 3 members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Militia in Baqubah; the blowing up of a Sunni shrine in Tikrit; and a mortar attack on the […]

Over 20 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Talabani’s Bid to call Parliament Fails The Iraqi general in charge of Baghdad security was killed by a sniper on Monday. I suppose it doesn’t need underlining that this is very bad news for Baghdad security. The assassinated commander, himself a Sunni Arab who led men during the Iran-Iraq […]

3 Mosques Attacked Kurdish Envoy Sees Sistani about Jaafari Mosque attacks continued in Iraq on Sunday, as sectarian violence refused to die down. There was guerrilla violence in Mosul, Baghdad, Baiji, Samarra and Ramadi. Amnesty International maintains that tens of thousands of Iraqis have been detained without trial or even formal charges for months and […]

Kirkuk at the Center of Kurdish-Shiite Struggles I find most reporting on the struggle between Iraq’s Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani and the current Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, to be awfully superficial and to allow itself to be led by Talabani’s talking points. What is really going on here has to do with Jaafari’s positions […]

Muqtada Warns Talabani on “interference” United Iraqi Alliance politicians continued Saturday to insist that the party would continue to back Ibrahim Jaafari as the new prime minister, despite attempts by Kurds (especially President Jalal Talabani) and Sunnis to push him aside. Jaafari has angered Kurds by his attempts to involve Turkey in Iraqi affairs to […]

Bush Greeted in Pakistan by Demonstrations, Nation-wide Strike Bush arrived in Islamabad to find it eerily quiet. The Islamic Action Council, which includes a group that helped train the Taliban, had called for a nation-wide strike to protest the visit. Streets of many cities were said to be strangely quiet, while in the northern Pushtun […]

Al-Hakim, UIA back Jaafari Sectarian Killings Raise Tension The killing, execution-style, of some 25 Shiite workers in a brick-making plant in Nahrawan by Sunni Arab guerrillas caused renewed ethnic tensions on Friday. Al-Zaman reports that [Ar.] Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance [Shiite religious parties] informed Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and […]