The death toll in Thursday’s bombings and attacks in Baghdad and environs rose to about 67 dead, with hundreds wounded. Most of the attacks honed in on soft targets (schools and markets) in Shiite neighborhoods, though some Sunni areas, considered collaborationist by the guerrillas, were also hit. The Sunni Arab guerrilla groups believe that the […]
Suleimani: The US Decline in the Middle East
The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Persian press about Qasim Suleimani, the head of the Jerusalem (Qods) Brigade of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. In it, Suleimani says that the fruitless Iraq War and the War on Terror were costly failures for the United States. In their wake, he says, the […]
Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, Occupy Your Heart
Usually at year’s end, we’re supposed to look back at events just passed — and forward, in prediction mode, to the year to come. But just look around you!
60 Dead in Baghdad Bombings; Iran and Al-Maliki
Update: 60 are dead in massive Baghdad bombings, probably by Sunni Arab guerrillas, as PM Nouri al-Maliki attempts to marginalize Sunnis politically Is Iran a consideration in Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq’s attempt to purge high Sunni Arab officals from his government? Al-Maliki has his own reasons for what he is doing. But […]
Massacre alleged in Syria
Syrian opposition groups alleged that the Syrian government committed a massacre in Idlib on Wednesday, leaving over 100 dead, most of them said to be civilians. The escalation of regime violence came just before a monitoring team from the Arab League was set to arrive in the country. Aljazeera English has a video report.
Egyptian Women Rally against Police Brutality
Thousands of women rallied near Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo on Tuesday, protesting the mistreatment meted out to women protesters by security forces. In some instances, the police had pulled up the woman’s dress and stomped on her. Indeed, women rallied all over Egypt, according to the Arabic press. A march was held in Alexandria […]
Egypt Scientific Institute up in Flames
The Scientific Institute in Cairo has been burned. It was the second oldest such institute outside Europe, after the one in Philadelphia. Some 200,000 rare books and manuscripts are abruptly gone. The military government of Egypt allegedly stationed snipers atop the building, who fired on demonstrators, putting the Scientific Institute in the crossfire of Egypt’s […]
Tomgram: Nick Turse, The Life and Death of American Drones
The drone had been in the air for close to five hours before its mission crew realized that something was wrong…
Iraq on the Brink: Court Forbids VP al-Hashimi from Leaving Country
The Iraqi equivalent of the supreme court issued an order Monday forbidding Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi from leaving Iraq, according to al-Hayat writing in Arabic. The order came on the heels of the issuance of a warrant against him, accusing the Sunni Arab politician of involvement in a bomb plot in the Green Zone aimed […]