Juan Cole

Al-Abbudi: Sistani Endorses the United Iraqi Alliance Al-Zaman reports via AFP that Shaikh Naji al-Abbudi, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spoke at a conference on the upcoming elections in the southern Shiite city of Diwaniyah on Sunday, and said something that is explosive if it is true. He alleged that Sistani is throwing […]

Major Fighting in Ramadi, Mosul, Kut al-Zaman says that a US soldier was killed Saturday at Babil, the site of ancient Babylon, where the US military has come under criticism for having damaged ancient artifacts while basing itself there. Guerrillas killed a member of the governing council of Ninevah. Sally Buzbee of AP reports that […]

Curfew Measures on Election Day Events conspired to undermine the Iraqi government’s attempts to reassure the public that procedures for voting would be secure. Judge Wael Abdul Latif, a Basra notable of Shiite heritage who serves as Federal minister for provincial affairs, announced that severe restrictions would be placed on automobile traffic near polling stations […]

Muqtada: “Outside Powers Should Not Interfere in Elections” Pachachi: Expatriate Iraqis must Vote Al-Sharq al-Awsat: Shaikh Nasir al-Sa`idi, the Friday prayers leader of al-Muhsin Mosque in Sadr City, read out a sermon written by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that called on “neighbors and non-neighbors of Iraq” to refrain from interfering the in the internal affairs […]

Polling Sites, Soldiers, Electoral Workers Targeted Guerrillas bombed a polling site in Sharqat north of Baghdad, destroying it but causing no casualties. In Baghdad, a policemen, two Iraqi soldiers and a civilian were killed in separate incidents. In Mosul, guerrillas detonated a car bomb as a US convoy went by, but no word on whether […]

7 Dead, 38 Wounded in Shiite Mosque Bombing Two Aides of Sistani Killed Guerrillas parked a car bomb outside a Shiite mosque in the eastern village of Khan Bani Saad on Thursday evening. Then, as Shiites exited the mosque after evening prayers, they detonated it, killing at least 7 and wounding 38. Nine shops nearby […]

Election News: No Ayatollahs, no Israelis Al-Hayat: The Iraqi National Accord has lodged a formal complaint with the Iraqi electoral commission against the use by the United Iraqi Alliance of the name and images of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in their campaign posters. Sistani sponsored the negotiations that led to the establishment of the coalition […]

Absolutely? Sometimes you have to go to the regional newspapers for the punchy editorials. The Pentagon’s announcement that the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction officially ended quietly in late December provokes the Virginia Pilot to observe, “And America is left with a seemingly endless war in Iraq, but without a rationale for it.” […]

Falling like Flies 53 Iraqi Parties Withdraw from Elections Xinhuanet reports that: ‘ According to the Al Furat newspaper, 53 political parties and organizations as well as 30 individuals have asked their names to be dropped from the election lists in a bid to show their rejection of elections under US occupation. ‘ There had […]