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The Iraqi political scene has been ablaze for the past 72 hours due to the emergence of recordings attributed to Nuri al-Maliki, the ex-Iraqi PM, in which he appears to be criticising and insulting Moqtada al-Sadr, one of Iraq's strongest Shiite political figures whose faction won big in the 2021 general parliamentary election. “The issue is that there is a British project aiming to put Moqtada in control of the Shia and Iraq, then they would kill him and give Iraq to the Sunnis. The issue is not al-Maliki [myself], I can just leave and take refuge in the house...

A debate between some of the Democrats running for President tonight who met qualifying criteria. Bernie Sanders, who won the popular vote in the Iowa caucuses, came under intense criticism.... The Russian Defense Ministry says that the Israeli military endangered an airline with 172 passengers on board by launching an early Thursday morning air attack on Damascus using the airliner as a shield.... Turkey says it will respond to any attack on its military forces in northwestern Syria's Idlib.... Official word of the death of an Al-Qaeda leader in a US military operation...... The French teenager who blasted Islam online...

TEL AVIV: Five days ago, an undisclosed intelligence agency intercepted a telephone call made by the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in which he was heard ordering his proxies in Iraq to attack the U.S embassy in Baghdad, as well as other Israeli and American targets, with the aim of taking hostages, Israeli sources say. It’s unclear whether this was a lapse in tradecraft on the part of the usually savvy Soleimani or whether the notorious Iranian military leader’s phone calls were being routinely intercepted. Nor is it clear whether it was the US or another...

Shia populist cleric and Iraqi nationalist Moqtada al Sadr won the May 12 Iraqi elections to the surprise of Iran, Turkey, the United States and many Iraq experts. Sadr is against Israel, the United States and Iran, and also opposes the presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi territory. Now he is the kingmaker of Iraq’s elections, winning 54 out of 329 seats in the Iraqi parliament. Washington was hoping Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al Abadi would win as a result of his defeat of Islamic State (ISIS), while Iran backed the Conquest alliance headed by the leader of the paramilitary...

A radical cleric who led militia into bloody battles with coalition forces in Iraq is on course to win the country's election. Firebrand Iraqi Moqtada al-Sadr formed the Mahdi Army in 2003 which was responsible for bloodshed on the streets of Basra and the shooting down of coalition planes.

Supporters of the powerful Shia cleric stormed Baghdad’s parliament, leaving legislators quivering in the basement and Iraq on the edge of political chaos. Hussain Jassim refused to leave the Green Zone, once considered the impenetrable citadel at the heart of Baghdad, until his leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered him to do so. “We have entered parliament and we have broken it’s prestige in front of people because they are thieves, they deserve for that to happen to them,” Jassim told The Daily Beast. He was one of thousands of angry protestors who on Saturday raided the Iraqi legislature, chasing MPs out...

Saturday's Washington Post had an article which quotes the usual unnamed intelligence sources saying that they are surprised to discover that al Qaeda has "reconstituted" itself. This surprise derives from, inter alia, the computer data found recently in Pakistan, intelligence sources (both ours and friends'), and simply looking at the range of activities in which the terrorists engage. This surprise is, as usual, unsettling, since it has been quite clear for some time now that al Qaeda and the other major terrorist groups — Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Jamaa, etc. — are all working together, and have been ever since...

Amid a surge of bombings in Iraq, Iran appears to be getting concerned about growing efforts to unseat Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whom Tehran helped to power.Even fellow Shiites are saying Maliki, who controls all Iraq's military, security and intelligence forces, should go. At the same time, Tehran is seeking to ensure that Iraq's Shiites don't upstage Iran's long-held spiritual domination of the Shiite sect, a position that the Iranian clergy seized during Saddam Hussein's rule when he ruthlessly suppressed Iraq's Shiite majority. The political and religious friction is being intensified by the campaign of bombings and assassinations carried out...

Barack Obama's real thinking about Israel and the Middle East continues to be an enigma. The words he chose in an address to AIPAC create a different impression than the composition of his foreign policy advisory team. Several advisors have evidenced a history of suspicion and worse toward Israel. One of his advisors in particular, Robert Malley, clearly warrants attention, as does the reasoning that led him to being chosen by Barack Obama. A little family history may be in order to understand the genesis of Robert Malley's views. Normally, one should be reluctant in exploring a person's family background...

Some 10,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by tanks, pushed deep into Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad bastion on Tuesday, stamping the government's authority on an area until now outside its control. The army said they met no resistance as they moved into Sadr City in the early hours, securing three quarters of the sprawling slum where hundreds have been killed in weeks of fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces and Shi'ite militants loyal to Sadr. A truce 10 days ago between Shi'ite factions largely ended the fighting in one of Baghdad's poorest districts and paved the way for Tuesday's...

A leading figure in the movement led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said the group would not pardon anyone if their leader is harmed. “In the event Sadr is harmed, Iraqi will them swim in a lake of blood,” warned Sheikh Sadeq al-Hasnawi. Hasnawi is one of the top officials leading the movement in Sadr’s absence. He said the cleric was currently in Iran “studying and mediating” in the religious city of Qom which is the Iranian equivalent of Iraq’s holy city of Najaf where Shiite clerics are educated and trained. Hasnawi made the remarks in response to unconfirmed reports...

The powerful Iraqi cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr called President George W. Bush the Antichrist on Saturday and urged him to heed calls by the opposition Democrats to withdraw from the chaos of Iraq. In fresh violence on Saturday, 14 people were killed and 39 others were wounded in a suicide car bombing in the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala south of Baghdad, a hospital said. A Reuters witness said he saw tens of casualties. Sadr, whose ministers quit Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government this month, renewed his demand for a U.S. pullout a day after Bush pledged...

Prince Harry, who is due to leave for Iraq, said he is willing to risk his life to serve his country. Harry, who delivered the speech to close friends at London’s Mahiki club on Friday, said: ‘I’m s**ting myself. I’m prepared to do anything they throw at me. I’m going to miss my family. But I am proud to serve my country, which is a great honor.’ Harry arrived at the exclusive club with girlfriend Chelsy Davy, who was wearing a short red dress. Harry’s friend Guy Pelly - Mahiki’s general manager - greeted the couple and showed them around...

Here are a couple headlines about a Iraqi timeline for US withdraw Moqtada al-Sadr defies Iraqi government by pulling out 6 ministers (because Iraqi Government will not set a timeline for US withdraw) check the story at ArabMonitor.info and Anti-war House Dems demand 'clear timeline' for pullout check the above story at CNN Can someone tell me why there is no headline that reads something like?: Al Sadr and Demorats demand time line. or Bush Maliki stand their ground against al Sadr Peloser time line Come on!! What is wrong with the media and the stinkin' demorats. This is the...

Teheran lunatic the presence of Moqtada Sadr in Iran TEHERAN - the spokesman of the Iranian ministry of the Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, contradicted the presence of the chief Iraqi radical Shiite Moqtada Sadr in Iran, reported Sunday the Isna agency. “Moqtada Sadr is not in Iran”, declared Mr. Hosseini. It is the first time that Iran lunatic officially the presence of Mr. Sadr on her ground. “That belonged to propaganda and the psychological warfare carried out by the United States in Iraq to more make pressure on Iran and it is without base”, declared Mr. Hosseini. Thursday,...

ALARM - Iraq: Sadr reconsiders her decision to boycott the government BAGHDAD - the current of the radical chief Moqtada Sadr Shiite announced Sunday that it put an end to its boycott of the Iraqi government, decided on November 29, 2006, after having received guarantees on the satisfaction of its requests.

A senior ally of radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr warned on Friday that thousands of the planned 21,500 extra US troops en route for the war-torn nation would “go home in coffins”. Launching a new strategy to rescue Iraq from civil war, Washington told the government of Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki, who owes his job to Sadr, it was on “borrowed time” and declared new “no holds barred” military operations. A cornerstone of the new approach is increased pressure on Iraq’s neighbours Iran and Syria -- which are accused by Washington of fomenting unrest -- and tougher action...

Thousands of Shiites prepare to ravel for Hezbollah in Baghdad BAGHDAD - Several thousands of Iraqi Shiites started to gather Friday in Baghdad where a demonstration of support for the party Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah, in conflict with Israel, must take place after the prayer of midday, a journalist of AFP noted. Several hundreds of bus and cars filled Shiites come from all the country have converged for Thursday with Sadr city, the district Shiite disinherited of the North-East of Baghdad. Holding up Iraqi flags and of Hezbollah, the young militants Shiites, of which some had covered a white shroud...

Italian journalist held hostage in Iraq Claire Cozens and agencies Tuesday August 24, 2004 Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who has been missing in Iraq since last week, has been kidnapped by militants, according to a video broadcast today on al-Jazeera television station. His driver was found dead at the weekend in Najaf and today an Islamist group said it had abducted an Italian in Iraq, giving Silvio Berlusconi 48 hours to announce it was pulling his troops out of the country.

Lost amid the news of all the bloodletting in Iraq is an important political development: The Kurds have switched sides. In the first parliament after the first set of elections, they allied themselves with the Shiite slate to produce the current Shiite-dominated government led by Ibrahim al-Jafari. Now the Kurds have joined with the opposition Sunni and secular parties to oppose the Shiite bloc. The result is two large competing coalitions: (a) the Kurd-Sunni-secular bloc, which controls about 140 seats in the 275-seat parliament and would constitute the barest majority, and (b) the Shiite bloc, which itself is a coalition...