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
One of the seven US marines facing charges related to the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha has admitted to lying about the deaths of five of them. Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz said he saw squad leader Sgt. Frank… Read moreNew revelations in Haditha atrocity
From US Labor Against the War (USLAW), May 9: Leading Iraqi Labor Leaders to Tour U.S. First woman union leader, head of oil workers union to visit 12 cities June 4-29, 2007 Atlanta, Berkeley, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New… Read moreIraqi labor leaders to tour US
A US helicopter opened fire on an elementary school in Diyala province May 8, killing seven students and wounding three, according to Iraqi security sources and local residents. Iraqi sources said the helicopter was fired on from the ground and… Read moreIraq: US kills civilians —again
Another bloody entry in Ansar al-Islam‘s bid to extend the “insurgent” terror campaign to Iraq’s (relatively) stable Kurdish autonomous zone. The need to mollify these thugs may explain the increasing conservative Islamist tilt of the supposedly secular Kurdish regional authorities… Read moreIraq: truck bomb in Irbil —Ansar al-Islam strikes again?
Major General Rick Lynch, who commands US forces south of Baghdad, told reporters May 7 recent history indicates that it takes an average of nine years to put down internal insurgencies, and there is “no instantaneous solution” in Iraq. “You… Read moreUS could be in Iraq for years: general
