Iraq analysis

[Al-khiyal]

Iraqi Government warns of 'endless civil war'

[Al-khiyal]

The bombing of a revered Shiite shrine which sparked a wave of violence in Iraq was the work of specialists, Construction Minister Jassem Mohammed Jaafar said Friday, adding that the placing of the explosives must have taken at least 12 hours.

"According to initial reports, the bombing was technically well conceived and could only have been carried out by specialists," the minister told Iraqia state television.

Jaafar, who toured the devastated thousand-year-old shrine on Thursday a day after the bombing which brought down its golden dome, said "holes were dug into the mausoleum's four main pillars and packed with explosives."

"Then the charges were connected together and linked to another charge placed just under the dome. The wires were then linked to a detonator which was triggered at a distance," the minister added.

To drill into the pillars would have taken at least four hours per pillar, he also estimated…..

Iraq shrine bombing was specialist job: minister

[Al-khiyal]

Iraq's death squads - On the brink of civil war

...Finally it was Mr Dulaimi’s turn. He walked slowly into the mortuary with his brother and a nephew, looking down at the long line of corpses. He stopped abruptly. Though he had feared the worst, nothing had prepared him for the sight of his dead son’s face. “Tortured!” he cried as he turned to his weeping cousin. “How can one imagine? They have pulled out his eye and teeth...”

'The cheapest thing in Iraq is a human life'

Iraqis tortured by government death squads

Bombs and clashes as Iraq government warns of "civil war"

Bodies of 14 policemen killed near mosque found

Iraq extends curfew until Monday

Curfews fail to stop deadly violence in Iraq

Bus bomb kills four in Hilla

The head of Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, said he was ready to travel to Baghdad to help quell the wave of communal violence convulsing Iraq.

Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi said yesterday he was willing "to meet his Sunni and Shiite Iraqi brothers to help them reconcile." He added, "We call on our brothers in Iraq, in the names of the Islamic institutions in Egypt, and of Islam, to make a united front and to stand on the side of those who build and not those who destroy..."

Egyptian Sunni leader offers to help end violence in Iraq

[Al-khiyal]

As hundreds die, as millions live in the shadow of death, as lives are being torn apart and fear grips the Iraqi people, Fox TV spins the ‘good news’ angle so beloved of ignorant Americans and tells its viewers to look for the 'upside':







Only on Fox: "All-out civil war in Iraq: Could it be a good thing?"

[Al-khiyal]

In a region long insulated from the rampant unrest in Iraq, relations between British forces and local leaders have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks as violence has escalated in and around this southeastern city, military commanders and residents said....

An end to the soft sell by the British in Basra: Rising violence damages relations with locals

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr returned to Iraq on Sunday, cutting short a regional tour following the bombing of a holy Shiite shrine that triggered a deadly wave of sectarian violence, aides said.

Al-Sadr arrived in the southern Iraqi province of Basra from neighboring Iran, said Amer al-Husseini at al-Sadr's Baghdad office....

Radical Shiite cleric returns to Iraq

Blast heard near Shi'ite shrine in Iraq's Basra

There are reports of casualties.

[Al-khiyal]

Sunni and Shi'ite clerics reach deal to ease tension

[Al-khiyal]

Former British ambassador - Iraq slipping into low-level civil war