Juan Cole

Iraqi Oil Exports delayed from both North and South AFP reports delays in Iraq oil exports in both the north and the south of the country. Although exports are up to pre-war levels, it should be remembered that the 2.8 million barrels a day typical of the pre-war period were very low in comparison to […]

Death Toll from Two days of Attacks in Iraq is 21 AP reports that guerrillas fired rockets into the municipal building in Mosul on Saturday, killing two civilians and wounding 14, including 2 policement. In central Baghdad, guerrillas set off a roadside bomb, which wounded 5 Iraqis. In the south, a brigand shot the driver […]

US Marine, 13 Iraqis, Killed in Fighting on Friday AFP reports that 13 Iraqis and a US Marine were killed in separate incidents on Friday. Marines engaged in an extensive firefight with guerrillas in Fallujah, in which 4 Iraqis were killed and 7 wounded, and in which guerrillas killed one US Marine. One of the […]

Shiite, Sunni Clerics in Iraq Condemn Israel, US; Muqtada: 9/11 Divine Retribution on US AFP reports that both Shiite and Sunni Muslim preachers on Friday continued to protest against the assassination of Hamas clerical leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, “burning Israeli flags and accusing the United States of remaining silent over the killing.” (On Friday, the […]

Muqtada, Sistani’s Rep, Condemn Interim Constitution Al-Jazeera TV, Doha, in Arabic 1608 gmt 26 Mar 04 via BBC Monitoring, reports that Muqtada al-Sadr also demanded in his sermon that if the Governing Council does not repeal the interim constitution or law of state administration, it should dissolve itself. He called the temporary constitution a “terrorist […]

Basra: Women Coerced to Veil, Shops Attacked David Delanian writes more on the role of Shiite militias in imposing a mini-theocracy in the southern port city of Basra. ‘ Menacing groups of men have been stopping cars at the university gates and haranguing women whose heads are uncovered, accusing them of violating Islamic law. Male […]

Rosen: The Violence is Relentless; Clerics Speak of Jihad against Infidel Americans Freelance journalist Nir Rosen, who has been living in the real Iraq unembedded, lets loose with what the Sunni heartland of Iraq is actually like under US occupation. It is, clearly, a hellhole that has all the stability of a pressure cooker with […]

Against the Three-State “Solution” in Iraq My review of 2 books on Iraq, Toby Dodge’s Inventing Iraq and Anderson and Stansfield’s The Future of Iraq, which appeared in The Nation last week, is now online. Excerpts: ” . . . The League of Nations announced a British Mandate in Iraq at San Remo in the […]

3 US Troops Killed, 9 Iraqis, 1 Jordanian Killed al-Hayat: It was announced on Thursday in Baghdad that three American troops and nine Iraqis were killed, along with a Jordanian driver, in separate attacks. In Kirkuk, a fire broke out in an oil well after the explosion of a bomb. There was a two-hour-long firefight […]