Iraqi insurgency

Insurgents in Iraq hack U.S. drones

by Paul Woodward 12.17.2009

Insurgents in Iraq hack U.S. drones By Siobhan Gorman, Yochi J Dreazen and August Cole, Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2009 Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations. Senior defense and [...]

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NEWS, OPINION & FEATURE: The cult of the suicide bomber

by Paul Woodward 03.16.2008

The cult of the suicide bomber By Robert Fisk, The Independent, March 14, 2008 No one doubts that the road to Baghdad – or Tal Afar or Fallujah or Mosul – lies through Syria, and that the movement of suicide bombers from the Mediterranean coasts to the deserts of Iraq is a planned if not [...]

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NEWS: Change or war

by Paul Woodward 01.29.2008

‘If there is no change in three months, there will be war again’ By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, January 28, 2008 A crucial Iraqi ally of the United States in its recent successes in the country is threatening to withdraw his support and allow al-Qa’ida to return if his fighters are not incorporated into the [...]

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NEWS: The foreign insurgent network; Sunni rivalries in Anbar

by Paul Woodward 01.21.2008

Papers paint new portrait of Iraq’s foreign insurgents By Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, January 21, 2008 Muhammad Ayn-al-Nas, a 26-year-old Moroccan, started his journey in Casablanca. After flying to Turkey and then to Damascus, he reached his destination in a small Iraqi border town on Jan. 31, 2007. He was an economics student back home, [...]

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NEWS: Diyala attack too big to be secret

by Paul Woodward 01.09.2008

U.S. attack in Iraq is no surprise to many insurgents By Stephen Farrell, New York Times, January 9, 2008 With extraordinary secrecy, and even an information blackout aimed at most of their Iraqi Army comrades, American troops began a major offensive on Tuesday to drive Sunni insurgents from strongholds in Diyala Province. But many insurgents [...]

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NEWS: The threat from the militias; divisions among Sunnis

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2008

Exit al-Qaeda. Enter the militias? By Charles Crain, Time, January 1, 2008 In 2007 the United States military put its most dangerous enemy on the run. In 2008 it may face an even more entrenched foe. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the primary target of the American troop surge and counter-insurgency strategy, appears to be on [...]

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NEWS & ANALYSIS: Iraq’s shifting alliances; diminishing authority; imperiled culture

by Paul Woodward 12.22.2007

Ruthless, shadowy — and a U.S. ally By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2007 “Abu Abed, you’re a hero,” the retired Shiite teacher shouted from the home she had fled last winter, when the bodies of Shiites were being dumped daily in the streets of her Amiriya neighborhood. The fighter, wearing green camouflage [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS & FEATURE: Conflicting signals from Iraq

by Paul Woodward 12.13.2007

Iraq progress feeds a new nationalism By Simon Tisdall, The Guardian, December 12, 2007 Improved security, an expanding economy, and new understandings with Iran, Syria and Turkey are fomenting an almost forgotten emotion among leaders of Iraq’s Shia-led government: optimism. But for Sunni Arab neighbours in the Gulf, Baghdad’s returning confidence raises the ghosts of [...]

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NEWS: Mosul “center of gravity for the insurgency”; Gates cautiously optimistic; Cheney irrationally exuberant

by Paul Woodward 12.06.2007

Pushed out of Baghdad, insurgents move north By Michael R. Gordon, New York Times, December 6, 2007 Sunni insurgents pushed out of Baghdad and Anbar Provinces have migrated to this northern Iraqi city and have been trying to turn it into a major hub for their operations, according to American commanders. A growing number of [...]

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NEWS: “More a cease-fire than a peace” in Iraq

by Paul Woodward 12.05.2007

A calmer Iraq: fragile, and possibly fleeting By Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times, December 5, 2007 The reduced violence in Iraq in recent months stems from three significant developments, but the clock is running on all of them, Iraqi officials and analysts warn. “It’s more a cease-fire than a peace,” said Deputy Prime Minister [...]

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NEWS, OPINION & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Time to get out, not dig in

by Paul Woodward 12.03.2007

Iraqi insurgents regrouping, says Sunni resistance leader By Jonathan Steele, The Guardian, December 3, 2007 Iraq’s main Sunni-led resistance groups have scaled back their attacks on US forces in Baghdad and parts of Anbar province in a deliberate strategy aimed at regrouping, retraining, and waiting out George Bush’s “surge”, a key insurgent leader has told [...]

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NEWS, OPINION & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Iraq – the shifting narrative

by Paul Woodward 11.25.2007

Bomb at a market shatters lull for Baghdad By Stephen Farrell, New York Times, November 24, 2007 Last Friday, the Ghazil animal market was a crowded bazaar in a city willing itself into recovery. Cautious but hopeful parents led fun-starved children by the hand to show them parakeets, tropical fish and twittering chicks painted in [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS, OPINION & FEATURE: In Iraq, it’s getting harder to find any bad guys

by Paul Woodward 11.13.2007

Who’s the Enemy? By Robert Dreyfuss, TomDispatch, November 11, 2007 Who is the enemy? Who, exactly, are we fighting in Iraq? Why are we there? And what’s our objective? Nearly five years into the war, the answers to basic questions like these ought to be obvious. In the Alice in Wonderland-like wilderness of mirrors that [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS, OPINION & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Looking for Iran in Iraq

by Paul Woodward 11.12.2007

Iraq: Call an air strike By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, November 10, 2007 “… the literature on counter-insurgency is so enormous that, had it been put aboard the Titanic, it would have sunk that ship without any help from the iceberg. However, the outstanding fact is that almost all of it has been written by [...]

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FEATURE: “After we finish with al-Qaida here, we will turn toward our main enemy, the Shia militias.”

by Paul Woodward 11.10.2007

Meet Abu Abed: the U.S.’s new ally against al-Qaida By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, The Guardian, November 10, 2007 Abu Abed, a member of the insurgent Islamic Army, has recently become the commander of the US-sponsored “Ameriya Knights”. He is one of the new breed of Sunni warlords who are being paid by the US to fight [...]

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NEWS: Displaced, bribed, killed without provocation, Iraqis look forward to economic surge

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2007

Report: 14 percent of Iraqis now displaced McClatchy, November 6, 2007 The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction offered a generally optimistic picture of security developments in Iraq in his quarterly report to Congress on Tuesday, but noted that while violence was down, one of every seven Iraqis — 14 percent of Iraq’s population — [...]

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NEWS: Gunmen in Iraq kidnap eleven tribal leaders allied with U.S.

by Paul Woodward 10.30.2007

Gunmen in Iraq kidnap eleven tribal leaders allied with U.S. By Amit R. Paley, Washington Post, October 29, 2007 Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday morning, the latest in a string of such attacks, fellow tribesmen said. The Shiite and [...]

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NEWS: Bin Laden calls for unity among insurgents

by Paul Woodward 10.23.2007

New audiotape from Osama Bin Laden urges Iraqi insurgents to put aside divisions and unite AP, October 22, 2007 Osama bin Laden has scolded his al-Qaida followers in Iraq and other insurgents, saying they have “been lax” for failing to overcome fanatical tribal loyalties and unite in the fight against U.S. troops. The message of [...]

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ANALYSIS: The first hints of a new sovereign and unified Iraq?

by Paul Woodward 10.20.2007

First steps Badger, Missing Links, October 18, 2007 “When you are surrounded by nothing but failure, then any success you can achieve will have a magnified effect,” writes historian Bashir Nafie in an overview of Iraqi politics. His starting point is the recent announcement of a six-faction resistance alliance (the gist of which was to [...]

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NEWS & OPINION: A unified Iraqi resistance

by Paul Woodward 10.16.2007

It’s the resistance, stupid By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, October 17, 2007 The ultimate nightmare for White House/Pentagon designs on Middle East energy resources is not Iran after all: it’s a unified Iraqi resistance, comprising not only Sunnis but also Shi’ites. “It’s the resistance, stupid” – along with “it’s the oil, stupid”. The intimate connection [...]

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ANALYSIS: Suicide bombings

by Paul Woodward 10.09.2007

Evolution of the suicide attacker By Jalal Ghazi, New America Media, October 9, 2007 The war in Iraq has enabled insurgent groups to develop the relatively modern innovation of suicide bombs into a strategic weapon. Suicide operations, the signature weapon of the Iraqi insurgency, have evolved into a tactical method of warfare used by insurgents [...]

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NEWS: Syria’s complex role in Iraq

by Paul Woodward 10.07.2007

Suicide bombers head to Iraq from Damascus By Hala Jaber and Ali Rifat, The Sunday Times, October 7, 2007 Abu Ziad’s is no ordinary business. He takes eager volunteers, inveigles them into Iraq for a fee and delivers them to insurgents who consign them to a bloody death with clinical efficiency. His network includes the [...]

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FEATURE: Roadside bombs

by Paul Woodward 10.03.2007

About left of boom: the fight against roadside bombs By Rick Atkinson, Washington Post, October , 2007 Rick Atkinson describes the effort by the U.S. military to combat the improvised explosive devices used by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2002 until now. The series is drawn from more than 140 interviews over the past [...]

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NEWS: Tribal members join in effort to assist U.S., Iraqi forces

by Paul Woodward 09.30.2007

30,000 volunteers to serve with police and military units By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post, September 30, 2007 More than 30,000 tribal members in Iraq have come forward to work with U.S. and Iraqi forces over the past six months, a phenomenon that is spreading beyond Anbar province to Baghdad and other regions of the [...]

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