Farmers in southern Iraq are turning to opium cultivation for the first time, the Belfast Telegraph reports. Traditional rice farmers along the Euphrates, outside the southern city of Diwaniya, have now abandoned rice—for which the area is famous—in favor of… Read moreIraq: opium economy takes hold in south
From the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), May 15: The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki, will meet in Baghdad with a delegation of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), led by its… Read moreIraq: oil workers threaten strike
An interesting report from IraqSlogger, May 15: An unknown left-wing group calling itself the Iraqi Armed Revolutionary Resistance distributed leaflets in the Mid-Euphrates area around Najaf, Hilla and Karbala calling for “resistance against American, British and Zionist occupiers in order… Read moreMarxist insurgents emerge in Iraq?
A chlorine bomb has exploded in a village [Abu Sayda] in the religiously-mixed province of Diyala, killing 32 people [May 16]. Iraqi insurgents have been increasingly accused of using chlorine—which causes severe burns—in their attacks. [BBC, May 16] Lieutenant-General Douglas… Read moreIraq: more chlorine terror; Bush gets “war czar”
The “Islamic State of Iraq,” having claimed responsibility for an ambush on a US patrol south of Baghdad May 12, has warned the US military to stop searching for three soldiers missing after the incident, if they want them to… Read moreIraq: civil war in the insurgency
A car-bombing attack on the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party [in Makhmur] killed over fifty people [May 13]. The blast comes as the autonomous and relatively stable Kurdish region in Iraq is in the grips of a fit of… Read moreIraq: more terror in Kurdistan
During a visit to the US-allied United Arab Emirates [May 13], Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the withdrawal of all US troops from the Persian Gulf region. [Reuters, May 13] He also promised “severe retaliation” to any attack on… Read moreIran: US out of Persian Gulf
Iraq’s most powerful Shi’ite party, Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), has announced key changes to its platform, moving closer to Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani—and away from Iran, where the party was formed… Read moreIraq: SCIRI breaks with Tehran?
Iraqi MPs are gathering votes to force their government to set a deadline for US forces to withdraw from the country and think they have a majority, a leading Shiite politician announced May 11. Baha al-Aaraji, a supporter of radical… Read moreIraqi MPs call for US withdrawal
A draft report by the US Government Accountability Office reveals between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels of oil from Iraq are unaccounted for and may have been siphoned off through corruption of smuggling. Based on an average of $50 per barrel,… Read moreBillions in Iraq oil money missing: GAO
Iraq’s Kurdish regional government has mobilized 1,000 peshmerga troops to its border with Iran, ostensibly to stop the flow of men and weapons to support the Islamist militant group Ansar al-Islam. Maj. Gen. Jabbar Yawir said an Ansar-allied group calling… Read moreNext in Iraq: Kurdish al-Qaeda?
British civil servant David Keogh has been sentenced to six months after being found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act for leaking a classified memo about a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush in… Read moreBrit official gets prison for leaking Bush-Blair memo
