Updated at 8:37 p.m. EDT, July 20, 2009
Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr met with Syrian leader President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, where Assad urged the cleric to press forward with reconciliation efforts. Back home, at least 15 Iraqis were killed and 19 more were wounded in violent attacks. Meanwhile, a brigade commander in Baghdad spoke on the current relationship between U.S. troops and security forces in the capital.
read moreBack to Iraq?
The Face in the Mirror
[Note for TomDispatch readers: Last year, at my birthday, I wrote "When I'm 64... ,"a post about war and (lack of) peace in my time. Another year has rolled around, as it tends to do, so think of what follows as further scribbled notes, stuffed in an e-bottle, and set...
Israeli Way of War Inherently Criminal
Like the ghost of Hamlet's father, the evil spirit of the Gaza War refuses to leave us in peace. This week it came back to disturb the tranquility of the chiefs of the state and the army. "Breaking the Silence," a group of courageous former combat soldiers,...
Predictable Chaos as Guantánamo Trials Resume
Fascism Needs an Enemy
Sunday: 1 US Marine, 4 Iraqis Killed; 18 Iraqis Wounded
Updated at 8:55 p.m. EDT, July 19, 2009
At least four Iraqis were killed and 18 more were wounded in a light day of violence. A U.S. Marine was killed in combat in Anbar province. So far, no outright attacks against Shi’ite pilgrims have been reported; however, a blast in Numaniya reminded pilgrims to stay alert to trouble as they head home from Baghdad.
read moreSaturday: 9 Iraqis Killed, 23 Wounded
Updated at 10:07 p.m. EDT, July 18, 2009
Today’s observances at the Imam Musa shrine in Baghdad suffered no attacks even though the millions of Shi’ite pilgrims who traveled there could have been potential targets for terror. Still, at least nine Iraqis were killed and 23 were wounded in other violence. No Coalition deaths were reported, but two Xe (formerly Blackwater) contractors were killed in a helicopter crash outside Baghdad; two more were wounded. In Arbil, Kurdish politicians rejected the partitioning of Kirkuk (At Tamim) province into four sections.
read more
