Juan Cole

Muqtada rejects Calls to Renounce Violence Reuters is now reporting that Muqtada al-Sadr has rejected an appeal by Muhammad Bahr al-Ulum and other Shiite clerics to renounce violence and tactics like taking over government buildings. Muqtada rejected the appeals. Reuters also alleges that Muqtada has now moved from his father’s mosque in Kufa to the […]

Arrest Warrant for Muqtada al-Sadr Dan Senor in a briefing in Baghdad on Monday revealed that an arrest warrant had been issued months ago “by an Iraqi judge” and implied that it would now be served. US television cable news is doing its best to obscure the real issues here. 1. They keep asking where […]

Muqtada Under Siege, US Helicopters Patrol Skies above East Baghdad Sistani calls for calm In the aftermath of one of the most turbulent days yet in American-occupied Iraq, the London daily al-Hayat reports that American helicopters were deployed late Sunday against the Army of the Mahdi militia of Muqtada al-Sadr in East Baghdad. It said […]

Levine: Dark Side of Globalization Don’t miss Mark Levine’s excellent meditation on the US occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as elements of uncontrollable “globalization” from an Arab point of view. Mark, an excellent Arabist who teaches at UC Irvine, recently visited Iraq unembedded. He writes of Iraqi […]

Effect of Plus Ultra Casualties on Coalition? Agence France Presse reports that a human rights group and the main opposition party have called for the exit of the 380 Salvadoran troops from Iraq in the wake of bloody clashes at Najaf on Sunday. ‘ “The blood of our soldiers has begun to run, and that […]

2 Killed in Seizure of Sadrist Office in Baghdad; Muqtada Aide Had Called for IGC Resignation Two pieces of information from BBC world monitoring. First, it reports on Sunday April 4 that: Al-Jazeera TV, Doha, in Arabic 1450 gmt 4 Apr 04 said that US troops killed two and injured 7 when they stormed the […]

Muqtada Aide: Australia Out! According to Australian Broadcasting Co., Imam Amer al-Hussaini, an aide to Muqtada al-Sadr, called Sunday for an immediate withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq. ‘ “The Saddam regime (is) gone and … we know how to control our country,” he told ABC radio through an interpreter. ‘ Australian Broadcasting’s Peter Cave […]

Incompetence or Double-Dealing in Coalition Management of Iraq? The Coalition decision to provoke a fight with Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement only three months before the Coalition Provisional Authority goes out of business has to be seen as a form of gross incompetence in governance. How did the CPA get to the point where it has turned […]

Shiite Clashes in with Coalition in Najaf Baghdad: Phase II of the Anti-Occupation Struggle Begins Nine Coalition Troops Killed, Dozens wounded in Confronting Uprising [Updated] The always tense relationship between the Sadrist movement among Iraqi Shiites and the US and its Coalition partners has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Perhaps a third of […]