Middle East

Iraqi Vice Premier Badly Wounded in Attack Iranians Take British troops Captive A Salafi Jihadi operative infiltrated the entourage of Iraqi Vice Premier Abdul Salam al-Zawba’i and detonated a belt bomb in his house on Friday, seriously injuring al-Zawba’i and hurting 17 other persons (some reports say it left 6 of his associates dead). Al-Zawba’i […]

4 US GIs Killed House Dems set to Pass ’08 Withdrawal Language Shiite on Shiite Violence in Basra House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to have put together a winning bill by both authorizing additional funding for US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan (something antiwar Democrats oppose) and by specifying a withdrawal date of 2008 (something […]

Truck Bombing of Kurdish HQ in Mosul Kills or Injures 45 A recent report on the readiness of Iraqi troops. says that the Iraqi military won’t be ready to ‘stand up’ any time soon, according to the General Accounting Office. A third of Iraqi troops are on leave at any one time. Many troops on […]

Dems in Congress seek Withdrawal Saudis intrigue against al-Maliki The Democrats are gearing up to try to pass an appropriations measure for Iraq that also specifies that US troops must come home by fall, 2008. A similar effort in the Senate failed when one Democratic Senator defected to the Republican side over the withdrawal issue. […]

Bush’s Top Ten Mistakes in Iraq during the Past 4 Years 10. Refusing to fire Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when his incompetence and maliciousness became apparent in the growing guerrilla war and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. 9. Declining to intervene in the collapsed economy or help put Iraqi state industries back on a […]

Iraqi Public Wants US Troops Out within a Year Sunni Parliamentarian Accused of Links to Bombers A poll of Iraqis commission by USA Today and several other news organizations revealed that: “In all, 83% of Shiites and 97% of Sunni Arabs oppose the presence of coalition forces in Iraq; 75% of Kurds support them. By […]

Iraq Friday Sermons on ‘Surge’ The USG Open Source Center translates and paraphrases Iraqi Friday prayers sermons, some of which speak of the ongoing “Surge.” Iraqi Friday Sermons for 16 Mar Discuss Security Plan, Political ProcessIraq– OSC SummarySunday, March 18, 2007 Major Iraqi television channels – Baghdad Al-Iraqiyah, Baghdad Baghdad Satellite Channel, Baghdad Al-Sharqiyah, Baghdad […]

Kahl: The US Military and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq Professor Colin Kahl of the Political Science Department at the University of Minnesota shared the thoughts below on an email listserv and I thought them clear, concise and cogent and asked for permission to reprint here–which he kindly granted. There is a lot of confusion about precisely […]

6 US Troops Killed, 8 Injured or Sickened Chlorine Poison Gas attacks Kill 8, Sicken 350 Thousands Protest War on 4th Anniversary 6 US troops were announced killed on Saturday. Guerrillas killed 4 with a roadside bomb in west Baghdad, wounding one other and then shooting and injuring a sixth. Another 6 US troops were […]