Juan Cole

Sistani Followers: Call for Resistance if Islam is Threatened Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post has written a fine and detailed description of the holy seminary city of Najaf, which is now reemerging as a Shiite center of learning, pilgrimage and politics. He reports that 40 seminaries have been established and that scores of clerics […]

Breaking News: 58 US Soldiers Wounded in Bomb Blast According to the WP, a suicide bomber got just barely within striking distance of a US Army base near Mosul, but detonated his bombs before he was ready because he took US fire as he drove madly toward the gate. He still managed to wound 58 […]

US Soldier Assassinated in Mosul Drive-By; Iraqi Policeman Killed Four Iraqis in a vehicle conducted a drive-by shooting directed at US troops in Mosul Monday, killing a US soldier from the 101st Airborne Division. In Baqubah, guerrillas detonated strategically a tank round, killing an Iraqi policeman who was a bomb disposal expert.

Iraqi Resistance sees itself as Fighting Occupation Mitchell Prothero of UPI has found a source among the guerrillas willing to explain the nature of the Iraqi resistance. It is decentralized; much or most of it is not religious; and it has people in it who initially thought well of the US but came to believe […]

US Using Israeli Military to Train Special Ops to fight Iraqis Julian Borger of the Guardian reports that the Israeli army has sent “urban warfare specialists” to Ft. Bragg in North Carolina, to help train US Special Forces personnel for operations in Iraq. He says that according to two sources, Israeli military “consultants” have also […]

Carnegie’s Arab Reform Bulletin I did not get time to do it when it came out, but I wanted to direct readers to the recent Arab Reform Bulletin put out by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which considers issues in the political development of contemporary Iraq. I’ve got a piece there, as do Peter […]

1 US Soldier Killed, 2 Wounded in Mosul Guerrillas used a roadside bomb to kill one US soldier and wound 2 others from the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul on Sunday. Also, guerrillas bombed a train near Samarra, detaching 12 cars and putting the rail link out of commission for a week or so, according […]

al-Da`wa Party will act as Intermediary for Muqtada The Shiite al-Da`wa Party announced that it would attempt to negotiate a truce between radical young Shiite preacher Muqtada al-Sadr and the Americans. (al-Zaman). Muqtada recently announced that he would call fo a general strike in February to protest the jailing of a number of his followers. […]

Hilla Demonstrations Point to problems of Legitimacy Mariam Fam of AP notes that there has been a popular movement of protest against the American-appointed mayor of the Shiite city of Hillah. His opponents accuse him of having been a Baath party member, of having collaborated, and of being corrupt and nepotistic. There have been similar […]