Middle East

The Sadr Movement in Basra is warning the US military not to try to come into the province to replace the departing British troops. Suspected Mahdi Army roadside bombs have inflicted unusually high casualties on British troops in the deep south this year. The International Organization for Migration is reporting that its data show that […]

7 US troops were killed 4 of them in al-Anbar profince and the other 3 in Ninevah proince. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Sadrist spokesman Baha’ al-A’raji says that his bloc in parliament is not exploring new alliances with a view to unseating Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. He said such a move would destabilize Iraq […]

Via Fareed Zakaria’s “Foreign Exchange,” an interview with David Enders, a journalist just back from Iraq with an unvarnished view of the situation. As I understand it, this is a 4-minute preview, with the whole interview to be available at Foreignexchange.tv from Saturday forward. Hat tip to the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.

With regard to the recent dust-up in the pages of the NYT between Bush and Bremer over the dismantling of the Iraqi Army, Ward Harkavy at the Village Voice reminds us that the mystery has already been solved by former British Home Secretary David Blunkett. He revealed in his memoirs that Cheney and Rumsfeld were […]

Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes: Perhaps the most telling commentary on the situation today in Iraq is the choice of a remote, heavily fortified US airbase in Anbar province for the President’s third visit to Iraq. He was joined by his senior national security officials, all kinds of four-stars, including General Petreus, and Ambassador Crocker. […]

From Josh Marshall’s Veracifier site, “Iraq by the Numbers”.