Middle East

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq insisted again Monday that all foreign troops must be out of Iraq by 2011 and that US troops in Iraq must come under the authority of Iraqi courts. These demands appear to have emanated in the first instance from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf and from Sayyid Muqtada […]

A suicide bomber attacked a celebration in Abu Ghraib late Sunday, killing at least 30 and wounding 42. The gathering was in honor of a former prisoner in a US prison who had just been released and was attended by police and by members of the local Awakening Council that has fought radical Muslim vigilantes […]

The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Arabic online press complaining about Iraqi government collective punishment of Baghdad city quarters that witness poor security. US, Iraqi Forces Accused of Dividing Baghdad Neighborhoods on ‘Sectarian’ BasisReport by Kalshan al-Bayyati “Residents of Baghdad: ‘The Government Imposes Collective Punishment on us”Al-Arab OnlineWednesday, August 20, 2008 […]

Secretary of State Condi Rice’s visit to Baghdad for consultations on the US-Iraqi security agreement provoked a demonstration in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, with Sadrist crowds carrying placards warning against US intentions. The Sadrists said that they rejected any security agreement that lacked a specific timetable for US troop withdrawal, and would take […]

Strange things happen in Iraq. On Tuesday, an unidentified Iraqi government security force, or at least people wearing such uniforms, attacked the Diyala provincial governor’s headquarters, killed his secretary, and arrested a member of the Diyala Provincial Assembly. The local police fought back, and four were wounded. The attacking unit is said to be a […]

Kurdish control of Kirkuk creates a powder keg in Iraq, the NYT explains this morning: ‘ it demonstrates that despite a recent decline in violence, Iraq’s unsettled ethnic and regional discord could still upend directives emanating from Baghdad and destabilize large swaths of the country — or even set off a civil war. . . […]

A suicide bomber in Baghdad killed 15 and wounded 29 in al-Adhamiya on Sunday. This neighborhood is what’s left of the Sunni enclave on the eastern side of the Tigris, and the bombing appears to have targeted a local Awakening Council leader, Faruq al-Ubaidi, who was killed. The US-financed Awakening Councils and the Qutbist vigilantes […]

Bombers struck at Shiite pilgrims for the third straight day on Sunday, killing as many as six new victims. This despite extensive security measures in the holy city of Karbala. The city was divided into eight districts, with checkpoints and body searches. Teams of female inspectors checked women for bombs. US and Iraqi aircraft did […]

Colin Kahl, just back from Iraq, gave a briefing that Gareth Porter attended. He reports that: 1. US officials in Baghdad are genuinely worried that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has become “over-confident” about his military capabilities and has therefore become unreasonably difficult to deal with over the proposed status of forces agreement on the rules […]