As statistics go, at least 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the occupation, now in its fifth year. Every one of them has left behind once loved ones to mourn the loss and to think of what might have been. This is the land of the Arabian Nights, and of love...
‘Special Weapons’ Have a Fallout on Babies in Fallujah
FALLUJAH - Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say. The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing...
Winter Soldiers Hit the Streets
SEATTLE - In a clear change of strategy to energize public antiwar sentiment, Iraq veterans led a determined demonstration of hundreds through the streets of downtown Seattle last Saturday, following regional Winter Soldier hearings at the Seattle Town Hall. A larger...
Iraq Vets: ‘Enough Is Enough. It’s Time to Get Out’
SEATTLE - Dozens of veterans from the U.S. occupation of Iraq converged in this West Coast city over the weekend to share stories of atrocities being committed daily in Iraq, in a continuation of the Winter Soldier hearings held in Silver Spring, Md., in March. At the...
Iraqi Athletes Praying, Not Playing
DAMASCUS - In the struggle now just to stay alive, everyone has forgotten that Iraq has lost, among other things, its tradition in sports. Some of its best sportsmen are now refugees. "No one seems to care about us," 20-year-old footballer Ali Rubai'i told...
Corruption Eats Into Iraqis’ Food Rations
FALLUJAH - Amidst unemployment and impoverishment, Iraqis now face a cutting down of their monthly food ration – much of it already eaten away by official corruption. Iraqis survived the sanctions after the first Gulf War (1990) with the support of rations...
Iraqi Refugees Flee Danger for Poverty
DAMASCUS - More than a million Iraqis were lucky enough to flee into Syria. But in this relatively safe haven, there is no getting away from poverty. Mohammad Saleem ran a successful supermarket in Baghdad. "I was leading a comfortable life with my family, despite the...
Five Years On, Fallujah in Tatters
FALLUJAH - Fallujah remains a crippled city more than three years after the November 2004 U.S.-led assault. Unemployment and lack of medical care and safe drinking water in the city 35 mi. west of Baghdad remain a continuous problem. Freedom of movement is still...
Iraq: From One Dictator to Another?
BAGHDAD - Many Iraqis have come to believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is just as much a dictator as Saddam Hussein was. "Al-Maliki is a dictator who must be removed by all means," 35-year-old Abdul-Riza Hussein, a Mahdi Army member from Sadr...
Syria Now Home to a Million Iraqi ‘Pillow Drivers’
DAMASCUS - More than a million Iraqis in Syria cannot find work. For their idleness, they have come to be called the "pillow drivers." The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says there are at least 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria. If...