Juan Cole

Coalition Troops Damage Babylon Reuters reports the outrage of Iraqi Minister of Culture Mufid al-Jazaeri at the damage he said is being done to the site of the ancient city of Babylon by Polish troops and equipment. Heavy equipment, helicopters and other machinery used by Polish-led forces based at Babylon, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, […]

Jones-Huffman Prize It’s been nearly a year since Naval Reserve Lt. Kylan Jones-Huffman was killed at al-Hilla in Iraq. He had studied Middle Eastern languages and was a Naval Academy graduate and reservist who had planned to begin a Ph.D. in Middle East History at George Washington University in fall of 2003. In January of […]

4 US Troops Killed; Blasts & Attacks Kill and Wound in Baghdad, Baquba, Mosul AP reports that guerrillas killed four US troops in separate incidents in Baghdad and al-Anbar province on Monday and Tuesday. Guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb on the western outskirts of Baghdad, killing two US soldiers. In al-Anbar, guerrillas employed mortar rounds […]

Hostage-Taking, Demonstrations in Najaf and Karbala In the holy city of Najaf, Shiite militiamen of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army took 18 policemen hostage, in hopes of forcing them to release jailed colleagues of theirs. The hostage-taking is probably also meant to remind local Iraqi security forces that it is dangerous for them to cooperate with […]

Cheney Blames Democrats for High Oil Prices (!) US Vice President Dick Cheney lambasted the Democrats on Tuesday for causing high petroleum prices. I don’t often find Dick Cheney amusing, but I fell off my sofa belly-laughing over this one. Cheney, being an oil man, knows exactly why petroleum prices are high. 1) The Iraq […]

Do People Want to Hurt us Because We’re on the Offensive? A sound bite from President Bush on Monday strikes me as emblematic of the country’s current crisis. He said, “It is a ridiculous notion to assert that, because the United States is on the offensive, more people want to hurt us,” he said. “We’re […]

Marine, Kirkuk Police, Iraqi National Guard Killed Agence France Press reported that guerrillas killed a US Marine Tuesday in al-Anbar Province during ‘security and stability operations.’ Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports that guerrillas ambushed a police patrol in Kirkuk, killing three policemen and wounding 6. Guerrillas in Karbala killed an Iraqi national guardsman and wounded 3 others […]

Series of Arrests in Pakistan reveals Plot to bomb Finance Centers The uncovering of a possible al-Qaeda plot against key US financial centers in New York and Washington began with the arrest in June of the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Muhammad and the cousin of Ramzi Yusuf, two top Paksitani operatives who come from Pakistan […]

Muqtada’s House Besieged by Marines US Marines and Iraqi National Guard troops headed for the house of Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday, possibly in an another attempt to arrest him, provoking a firefight with his militiamen, who were guarding the house. Several persons were wounded, and one woman was killed, according to Sadrist sources. The troops […]