Dahr Jamail

I‘m in need of a haircut, so I ask Abu Talat if he thinks it would be safe to get one here, risking the time on the street required to do so. Smiling, he says, "Yes, Dahr, it may be possible, but we must make sure we have confidence in the barber so you get … Continue reading “This Time Last Year”

"Doctors in Fallujah are reporting there are patients in the hospital there who were forced out by the Americans," says Mehdi Abdulla, a 33-year-old ambulance driver at a hospital in Baghdad. "Some doctors there told me they had a major operation going, but the soldiers took the doctors away and left the patient to die." … Continue reading “‘We Live Like Dogs’”

The NewStandard BAGHDAD – While debate continues in the United States about how best to manage the occupation and nation-building of Iraq, the ideas of Iraqis on the matter of what is to happen in their country have been all but completely muted in the West. Iraqis tend to favor free elections without American influence … Continue reading “Iraqi Critics Speak Out on Occupation, Election”

BAGHDAD – An eyewitness commentary to IPS through a U.S. raid on a Baghdad mosque Friday gives a vivid picture of what a "successful raid" can be like. U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers. At 12:30 p.m. local time, … Continue reading “Eyewitness to US Forces Raiding a Mosque”

BAGHDAD – Journalists are increasingly being detained and threatened by the U.S.-installed interim government in Iraq. Media have been stopped particularly from covering recent horrific events in Fallujah. The "100 Orders" penned by former U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer include Order 65 passed March 20 to establish an Iraqi communications and media commission. … Continue reading “Media Repression in ‘Liberated’ Iraq”

We had our daily car bomb today when a suicide bomber drove his car into a U.S. patrol as it passed near the Yarmouk police station. Several Iraqis were killed, with no report yet on U.S. casualties. I felt the rumble even though I was on a street far away from the blast – at … Continue reading “The Streets of Baghdad”

She lays dazed in the crowded hospital room, languidly waving her bruised arm at the flies. Her shins, shattered by bullets from U.S. soldiers when they fired through the front door of her house, are both covered by casts. Small plastic drainage bags filled with red fluid sit upon her abdomen, where she took shrapnel … Continue reading “Slash and Burn”

BAGHDAD – At least 800 civilians have been killed during the U.S. military siege of Fallujah, a Red Cross official estimates. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of U.S. military reprisal, a high-ranking official with the Red Cross in Baghdad told IPS that "at least 800 civilians" have been killed in Fallujah so far. … Continue reading “800 Civilians Feared Dead in Fallujah”

BAGHDAD – Everyone saw it coming, only the U.S. forces did not: humanitarian disaster in Fallujah, and stronger resistance against U.S. and allied occupying forces all around Iraq. The real face of the “success” of the U.S. military assault in Fallujah is now beginning to present itself. Thousands of families remain trapped inside Fallujah with … Continue reading “‘Success’ in Fallujah, Failure Elsewhere”

It never fails to get my adrenaline flowing when my hotel rumbles from a car bomb detonating in central Baghdad. Last night around 7 p.m. the explosion occurred at a hotel compound which houses foreign contractors over near Firdos Square. Shortly thereafter, the "Green Zone" took a sustained mortar attack that went on long enough … Continue reading “Dogs Eating Bodies in the Streets of Fallujah”