Juan Cole

5 Dead in Baghdad Blast Sistani withdraws from Politics The 77 refitted T-72 Soviet-era tanks offered to Iraq by Hungary have finally arrived, at Taji base. The tanks were due in September. But in a larger sense the tanks are years overdue. There can be no effective Iraqi military response to the guerrilla movement without […]

Omani Embassy Killings Iraqis Suspected in Jordan Bombings First, Secretary of State Condi Rice called Friday for more Arab states to open embassies in Iraq. Then, guerrillas staged a drive-by shooting at the Omani embassy in Baghdad, killing 2 and wounding 4 persons. I think we may conclude a) that her visit is being monitored […]

67 Dead in Iraq Guerrilla Violence Oliver Poole of the Telegraph reports that suicide bombers hit a restaurant in Baghdad on Thursday that is a favorite of local police, killing at least 33 persons, mostly civilians. At least as many were wounded. In Tikrit to the north (the home town of Saddam Hussein), another bombing […]

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Claims Jordan Bombings Jordanians held an anti-terrorism demonstration in Amman on Thursday to protest the hotel bombings. The death toll rose to 59. The Times of London reported that “Bashir Nafeh, director of military intelligence chief in the West Bank, was named as being among the dead. He had stopped in Amman […]

McCain and the Oil Spots Senator John McCain has now jumped on the “oil-spot” bandwagon, urging that the US forces concentrate on making a handful of key cities safe rather than doing sweep and clear missions like Tal Afar and Husaybah. Unfortunately, this strategy is impractical, even if the US put 10,000 more troops in, […]

Sistani Aide Blasts Jaafari Government From BBC World Monitoring: November 11, 2005 AIDE SAYS IRAQ’S AL-SISTANI’S CRITICIZES PM AL-JA’FARI’S GOVERNMENT Text of report by Iraqi Al-Sharqiyah TV on 11 November The representative of Grand Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali al-Sistani has criticized the performance of Dr Ibrahim al-Ja’fari’s government and warned it against a failure in the […]

Chalabi Rides Again My article on Ahmad Chalabi and his revived connections to the Bush administration and the Neocons is at Salon.com. Excerpt: On the street in Iraq, people give nicknames to the big longtime-expatriate politicians whom the Americans brought back to Iraq. They call former transitional Prime Minister Iyad Allawi “Iyad the Baathist” because […]

Terrorists Strike Hotels in Amman Suicide bombers struck three tourist hotels in Amman, Jordan on Thursday, killing at least 67 persons and wounding nearly 200. Among the innocent victims was a wedding party. A Syrian film producer and his daughter may be dead, according to Al-Sharq al-Awsat. This news hits me where I live. I […]

Baghdad Bombs kill 13, wound 34; Divisions among Jihadis AFP reports that “13 people, including seven Iraqi policemen and six civilians, were killed and 34 were injured in three car bombs in different parts of Baghdad on Wednesday, medical and military sources said.” Knight Ridder reports that the “Zarqawi” group has broken with other Sunni […]