Middle East

Nearly 50 Dead Saturday US Fires on Baquba Mosque Muqtada: Postpone Kirkuk Referendum Police found 24 bodies in Baghdad on Saturday, according to Reuters. 3 soldiers were found shot dead in Kirkuk. A dead policeman was found in the southern Shiite city of Diwaniya. A suicide truck bomber attacked an Iraqi miltiary checkpoint near Iskandariya […]

Guest Essay: Polk on Iraq William R. Polk Fact Sheet on Iraq What is Iraq: Iraq was created by Great Britain at the end of the First World War from three provinces of the defeated Ottoman Empire. While it is common to think of it as still those three parts – the Kurdish Muslims in […]

More than 80 Killed Pace not Reappointed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will not seek the reappointment of Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Gates appears to have feared that Pace’s long involvement in the Iraq War and his relatively subservient attitude to former SecDef Donald Rumsfeld would turn his […]

The Eighth Front According to Turkish sources, hundreds of Turkish troops crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning in hot pursuit of Kurdish terrorists. There was some skepticism about whether this incident actually occurred, and it was both affirmed and denied by various Turkish sources in the course of the day. MSNBC showed footage […]

Bombs Rip Kadhimiya; 4 US GIs Killed; Sunni Guerrillas Announce Truce with Each Other Two coordinated car bombs hit the Shiite Kadhimiya district of north Baghdad on Wednesday. A third bomb was found and disarmed before it could go off. The explosions killed 7 and wounded 27. They took place uncomfortably close to the shrine […]

Parliament Demands Say in Extension of US Mandate Bombing Kills over 2 Dozen in Amiriya Al-Maliki said to be Isolated, Ineffective The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution on Tuesday demanding that parliament be consulted before the al-Maliki government asks the UN to extend the US military mandate in Iraq. That issue will arise at the […]

3/4s of Baghdad out of Control Priest Killed Sad Graduation for Iraqi College Students A bleak internal US military assessment of the progress of the Bush/Kagan “surge” in Baghdad, revealed by the NYT on Monday, has been followed up on by CNN.. Here is what the Pentagon correspondent is saying: ‘ A top U.S. commander […]

Helman Guest Op-Ed: Even Plan B Doesn’t Look Promising in Failed State of Iraq Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes: There are continuing reports, seemingly based upon authoritative backgrounding out of Baghdad and Washington, suggesting that variations on a “Plan B” are being developed. While support continues to be voiced for the current “surge”, doubt is […]

Iraq Dominates Democratic Debate 14 US Troops Killed over Weekend The Democratic Party candidates for president debated on Sunday evening. Iraq dominated the first half of the debate. Shorter versions: Biden: We can’t get out of Iraq because we don’t have the votes to end the war in the Senate. Since Congress cannot force Bush […]