Juan Cole

Patel on Muqtada al-Sadr David Patel writes from Iraq concerning the allegation that Muqtada is being “run” by the Iran-based cleric Kadhim al-Haeri: ‘ I have been in Basra since Sep and know both Moqtada’s and al-Haeri’s representatives in town. Although al-Haeri is technically Moqtada’s marja and a picture of him hangs in every al-Sadr […]

Gunbattles Rage in Many Iraqi Cities on Wednesday az-Zaman reports ongoing gunbattles in Ramadi and Fallujah between Sunni Arab forces and US marines. It also notes that clashes have broken out in the Adhamiyah and Yarmuk quarters of Baghdad around Umm al-Qura Mosque (these are Sunni areas of the capital). The US killed 40 people […]

Militias Forbidden? And US Hypocrisy Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor, who has often attempted to peddle frankly false stories, was at it again on Wednesday. He said Muqtada al-Sadr was targeted because he maintained a militia. Let’s see: In April of 2003, the US Department of Defense flew Ahmad Chalabi into Iraq with over […]

Sistani Fatwa on Insurgency trans. J. Cole from Sistani.org Question: You know the cruel methods that the Occupation Forces are employing in the continuing clashes for several days in areas of Baghdad and in several provinces in the west, center and south–which have led so far to the deaths of numerous victims among civilians. Likewise, […]

12 US Troops Killed at Ramadi; Over 24 Wounded; 3 Killed at Kadhimiyah US troops died at the hands of Sunni Arab guerrillas at Ramadi on Tuesday, but also at the hands of radical Shiites in Kadhimiya, a suburb of Baghdad that is the site of the tomb of the 7th Imam. A two-front struggle […]

The Second Front: Multi-City Sadrist Uprising Continues The difficulty the United States and its allies are having in regaining control of the major cities of the Shiite south is breathtaking in its implications. There is little doubt that they can prevail eventually in a military sense. But if the Sadrist uprising were a minor affair […]

The Iran factor There has been a great deal of speculation about possible Iranian connections to the Shiite resistance to US occupation in Iraq. The connection is not straightforward. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf is originally from a town near Mashhad in eastern Iran, but has been in Iraq since 1952, much longer than […]

Mahdi Army Fights Coalition in Baghdad, Karbala, Basra: Takes control of Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf wire services report that there was more violence on Monday in Baghad. A contingent of the Army of the Mahdi clashed with a US patrol in al-Showla. US helicopters strafed the militiamen and the headquarters of Muqtada al-Sadr. […]

Muqtada: Proud to be an Outlaw; Al-Ha’iri: Americans are making War on the Shiites Ash-Sharq al-Awsat: According to Shaikh Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the Army of the Mahdi in Baghdad, Muqtada al-Sadr was delighted to be called an “outlaw” by US civil administrator Paul Bremer. He attributed to Sadr these words: “If Bremer means […]