Aaron Glantz

When U.S. troops backed by helicopter gunships attacked the Mehdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the holy Shia city of Najaf, it is not clear who they killed. The US military says 64 Iraqi fighters were killed, but hospital officials in Najaf told the Arab satellite network al-Jazeera that several casualties appeared to … Continue reading “US May be Fighting on Two Fronts Too Many”

New families seem to arrive every hour at the Iraqi Red Crescent refugee camp in West Baghdad. The camp, the first tent city erected as a result of the U.S. assault on Fallujah first drew about 50 families, a small fraction of the tens of thousands of civilians forced to flee their homes. These were … Continue reading “Creating Homeless in Iraq”

A U.S. military helicopter flies over the municipal building in the predominantly Shia Baghdad neighborhood Kadamiya. A U.S. trained Iraqi soldier stands guard. The guard says he signed up in the new Iraqi Army to keep Baghdad safe from looters and thieves, but that if the Mehdi Army of the Shia leader Muqtada al- Sadr … Continue reading “US Facing Resistance Made Up of Very People It Trained”

Until recently, it was easy to find Sheikh Salim Mejid Jumar, one of Muqtada Sadr’s top leaders in Baghdad. The cleric dressed in flowing white robes could be found most days in the municipal building of Baghdad’s poor and primarily Shia neighborhood Showle. He is a member of the municipal governing council and he came … Continue reading “US Fatwa Turns Sadr From Community Leader to Insurgent”

Private First Class Matt Maupin assigned to the U.S. Army Reserve’s 724th Transportation Company based at Bartonville, Illinois, became the first prisoner taken by Iraqi insurgents since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military is currently holding more than 20,000 Iraqis behind bars – most of them taken during house to house searches by … Continue reading “One US Hostage – and 20,000 Iraqi Hostages”

The story of Yusuf Fakri Amash is the story of so much of Fallujah. The 11-year-old boy just managed to escape from the town with his family. But not before the U.S. military killed his best friend. "Ahmed was in my class," he says. "He was younger than me. He was standing next to the … Continue reading “Fallujah Cannot Even Bury Its Dead”