Middle East

Decoding Iraq Violence US Planes Take out Elementary School, Kill Children Kufa Blast Kills 16: US Blamed Irbil Bombing Kills 12 Violence in Iraq at first seems episodic and hard to decipher. It doesn’t take much speculation, however, to see patterns. For instance, the bombing on Wednesday morning in Irbil, Kurdistan, which killed at least […]

Sunnis Threaten to Pull out of al-Maliki Government, Demand a Unitary Iraq; 65 Killed in Civil War Violence In an interview with Nic Robertson of CNN, Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, has laid down an ultimatum. He said that he would pull the Iraqi Accord Front (Sunni fundamentalists) out of the al-Maliki “national […]

Petroleum Law not About Fair Distribution of Revenues The Iraqi petroleum bill has run into heavy opposition in parliament from Kurds and other political forces. The Bush administration had made passing it by June 15 one of 4 major “benchmarks” for the progress of the al-Maliki government. Michael Schwartz at Tomdispatch.com covers the main issues […]

8 US Troops Killed; Major bombing at Shiite Market killes 35; Boehner Favores Benchmarks Sunni Arab guerrillas killed nearly 100 persons in Iraq on Sunday in an orgy of civil war violence. The guerrillas in Iraq killed 8 US troops on Sunday, including 6 blown up by a roadside bomb along with an embedded European […]

Al-Zawahiri attacks Democratic Plan in Iraq; 75 Killed in Civil War Violence; Police/Mahdi Army Truce in Najaf Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s no. 2 leader complained in a videotape released Saturday about the Democrats’ plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq. Al-Zawahiri said he preferred that the US remain so that Muslim guerrillas could bleed the US […]

3 Schools of Islamic Resistance in Iraq The USG Open Source Center translates the remarks of a forum participant on the 3 distinct movements of Muslim fundamentalists in Iraq. Forum Participant Says Jihadist Arena Contains ‘Three Schools With Distinct Features’Jihadist Websites — OSC SummarySunday, May 6, 2007 Terrorism: Forum Participant Says Jihadist Arena Contains ‘Three […]

Neighbors Pledge to Halt Iraq Violence Iranian FM Snubs Sec. Rice Four American GIs were announced killed on Friday. The US broke up a weapons smuggling ring in Sadr City. At the Sharm El Sheikh Conference, the neighbors pledged to help with security. The Iranian foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, protested the continued holding of 5 […]

Guest Comment: Iraq Prognosis A canny Vietnam veteran wrote me the below but requested that it be posted without attribution. I thought it well worth sharing. As I see it, these are some of the things we can expect in the next seven months in Iraq: 1. The last of the “surge” forces (American), will […]

Sharm el Sheikh on Iraq T.V. The USG Open Source Center translates or summarizes comments on Iraqi television about the second day of the Sharm el Sheikh Conference, which focused on security issues. Al-Iraqiyah, Al-Sharqiyah Coverage of Sharm al-Shaykh Conference 4 May (2)Iraq — OSC SummaryFriday, May 4, 2007 Baghdad Al-Iraqiyah Television in Arabic — […]