Juan Cole

Continued Violence in Iraq Major violence wracked Najaf again on Saturday. Mahdi militiamen launched mortar shells at US military positions, and they fired back, starting a battle that lasted for about 45 minutes. AC-130s fired their cannons at Mahdi Army positions in the sacred Valley of Peace cemetery near the holy shrine of Ali. There […]

Class, Generation and Neo-Khomeinism Khaled Yacoub Oweis of Reuters has an excellent piece today in which he points out that even if the U.S. can force Muqtada al-Sadr and his men out of the shrine of Ali, they won’t have made a dent in his movement. (Muqtada’s followers are not from Najaf in the main, […]

Explosions in Najaf: Situation Unsettled Reuters is reporting four loud explosions in Najaf early Saturday morning. Heavy fighting continued in both the south and the north of the city until Friday afternoon. Reports Friday that the Mahdi Militia had turned the keys to the shrine of Ali over to aides of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani […]

Breaking News: Mahdi Army Departs Shrine Al-Jazeerah and the American cable news shows are reporting that Mahdi Army fighters handed over the keys of the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf to a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and departed it overnight. Iraqi police are said to have entered the shrine. However, the Mahdi militia […]

Could Najaf Cost Bush the Election? Even though the crisis at the Shrine of Ali seems to have passed, the U.S. military actions in the holy city of Najaf have been deeply unpopular with American Muslims. A politically signficant demonstration was held by Shiite Iraqi-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, last week. (Despite its size, its leadership […]

US Attacks in Najaf, Sadr City Al-Hayat: The US military launched a two-pronged attack on the Sadrists on Thursday. They attacked in Najaf, but also in East Baghdad or Sadr City. This newspaper speculates that the US realizes that if Muqtada is forcibly removed from the Shrine of Ali, there will be a social explosion […]

What does Muqtada al-Sadr Want? Tom Engelhardt asks hard questions at the indispensable Tomdispatch.com about journalistic language concerning the Iraq crisis. How do we characterize Muqtada al-Sadr? Our military operations in the country? What words to journalists use and how does that affect perceptions? Meanwhile, the Associated Press expresses confusion, both its own, and that […]

National Council Process Derailed Basra Delegates Withdrawn The national convention of some 1200 delegates to choose an interim national council was beset with several setbacks. It initially had to be postponed two weeks out of concerns that the country’s political chaos were unpropitious to success. Some in the UN thought it should be postponed even […]

Babylon and the Polish Troops 2 Dead, 5 Wounded in War-Related Accident Reuters reports that guerillas fired at a Polish convoy late Wednesday or early Thursday, so startling the drivers that an accident ensued, killing 2 soldiers and wounding five. A Polish-speaking reader shares the following summaries from Polish new sources about fighting in the […]