Middle East

A suicide bomber attempted to assassinate Ahmad Chalabi on Friday as the politician was returning home to the Mansur district. The bomb killed 6 bodyguards and wounded 17 persons, but missed its main target. Advisor to the Ministry of Defence, Abdulameer Hasen Abbas was shot as he was driving near Shaab district in eastern Baghdad. […]

The US killed 7 Iraqi troops in a friendly fire incident on Wednesday. What do you want to bet the incident gets brought up at the talks between the US and Iraq on a security agreement? The Iraqi government has presented new proposals in its negotiations with the United States over a bilateral security agreement. […]

DPA reports that “Seven people were killed in a car bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul city Tuesday . . . a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near an Iraqi army checkpoint in the eastern al-Quds neighbourhood, killing seven people and wounding seven. . . In Baghdad twin attacks that targeted police […]

The US has handed over security duties in al-Anbar Province to Iraqi troops and police. Maj. Gen. John Kelly warns,however,that al-Anbar needs an infusion from the central government of cash for reconstruction if the province is to avoid going into insurgency yet again. McClatchy reports on fears of American officials that Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki […]

Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that hundreds of members of the Mahdi Army of Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr are rejecting his call for a long-term ceasefire with US troops and their transformation into a service organization. The militants say they cannot conceive of their mission in life as anything other than violently opposing the presence of US […]

The USG Open Source Center translates Iraqi sermons from Friday Roundup of Iraqi Friday Sermons 29 AugIraq — OSC SummarySaturday, August 30, 2008 Document Type: OSC Summary … On the “crisis of Kirkuk and Khanaqin,” [Sheikh Sadr al-Din] Al-Qabbanji says: “There is a crisis in Iraq now called the Kirkuk crisis. There are Arabs, Kurds, […]

The LAT reports doubts in Baghdad about whether the security agreement between the Bush administration and the Iraqi government will be achieved. Al-Maliki abruptly dismissed his negotiating team and replaced it with three officials close to himself. MP Mithal al-Alusi is convinced that the change was intended to derail the talks. Diyala Province is still […]

Shiites from the Sadr Movement in Iraq have been signing oaths in blood to struggle against the foreign military occupation of their country. This ritual affirmation comes despite the command from Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr to lay down their arms. Sadr has also spoken of creating a special forces unit to kill US and other coalition […]

The US military on Friday arrested Ali Faisal al-Lami, a Sadrist who served on the Debaathification Committee under Ahmad Chalabi. The Pentagon maintains that Al-Lami is deeply involved with Iran-backed “special group” cells and implicated in a bombing in Sadr City that killed several people including two GIs. Chalabi, a notorious liar and embezzler to […]