Free Republic

BAGHDAD, April 11 — Arms that American military officials say appear to have been manufactured in Iran as recently as last year have turned up in the past week in a Sunni-majority area, the chief spokesman for the American military command in Iraq said Wednesday in a news conference. The spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said that detainees in American custody had indicated that Iranian intelligence operatives had given support to Sunni insurgents and that surrogates for the Iranian intelligence service were training Shiite extremists in Iran. He gave no further description of the detainees and did not...

KARABILA, Iraq, Feb. 18 — In a remote patch of the Anbar desert just 20 miles from the Syrian border, a single blue pillar of flanges and valves sits atop an enormous deposit of oil and natural gas that would be routine in this petroleum-rich country except for one fact: this is Sunni territory. Huge petroleum deposits have long been known in Iraq’s Kurdish north and Shiite south. But now, Iraq has substantially increased its estimates of the amount of oil and natural gas in deposits on Sunni lands after quietly paying foreign oil companies tens of millions of dollars...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — Saudi Arabia has told the Bush administration that it might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in any war against Iraq’s Shiites if the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq, according to American and Arab diplomats. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia conveyed that message to Vice President Dick Cheney two weeks ago during Mr. Cheney’s whirlwind visit to Riyadh, the officials said. During the visit, King Abdullah also expressed strong opposition to diplomatic talks between the United States and Iran, and pushed for Washington to encourage the resumption of peace talks between Israel and...

Political bickering, poor governance and economic woes - with foreign debt of $53.7b - weigh down the country THERE'S much about Beirut that recalls Singapore: the greenery, the lively, urban lifestyle, good schools and eating places, a colourful port, low crime. But look again. One in four passers-by is not Lebanese, but Syrian - about a million of them in a nation of barely four million native Lebanese. Some 30,000 Syrian troops man roadblocks. Other Syrians work as labourers in the booming construction business. Some beg. And some - installed in Lebanon's intelligence service - help monitor the movements of...

Islamic double-standards Posted: January 22, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com I've never been one to defend the French, but it seems to me Paris is getting a bit of a bad rap from the Islamic world these days. Muslims throughout France and around the world seem to have become fixated on the nation's decision to ban religious symbols in public schools – including the hijab, or head scarves worn by Muslim girls and women. There have been massive demonstrations and rallies around the globe over this "abuse of religious freedom." What I find so amazing about this story...

OPERATION: IRAQI FREEDOM CIA: Saudi Arabia funds Sunni insurgency Post-war U.S. death toll surpasses that during conflict Posted: August 26, 2003 5:36 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com The Central Intelligence Agency has fingered Saudi Arabia as the leading financier of the Sunni insurgency claiming American lives in Iraq daily. A CIA report which cites the activities of major Islamic insurgency groups in the country and their state sponsors was disclosed by Kurdish sources in Iraq to the London-based Al Hayat daily, according to a translation by Middle East Newsline. Al Hayat reported U.S. intelligence officials assert Iran, Saudi Arabia and...

A radicalised current of Sunni Islam is emerging in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, as the community which ruled for decades watches the long-oppressed Shiites assert their will by virtue of sheer numbers. Most fight the Americans in the name of Saddam Hussein, but some have picked up arms as an assertion of their Sunni identity, in anger over the US designs to radically alter their world with plans for Western-style democracy. "The battle against the occupation and the wicked is an obligation of Islam," a senior cleric said in the town of Fallujah, which for many has become a symbol of...

First Published 2003-05-10, Last Updated 2003-05-10 16:05:04Dammam is the capital of the oil-rich Eastern province    Saudi authorities launch investigation into arson attacks on three Shiite mosques on Tarut island. RIYADH - Authorities in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province have launched an investigation into what appear to have been arson attacks on three mosques for the Shiite Muslim minority a few days ago, residents said Saturday. Unidentified assailants set small fires in three mosques on Tuesday and Wednesday on the Tarut Island in the Gulf, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Dammam, the capital of the oil-rich province, they said. The motives...

<p>Saddam Hussein's last remaining loyalists are using a trick they employed in the war by mingling with civilian crowds and firing on American forces trying to stabilize Iraq, U.S. military officials say.</p> <p>Since the fall of Baghdad on April 9, the tactic has been used sporadically, mostly in Sunni Muslim-dominated towns such as Kut, Mosul and Fallujah west of the capital.</p>

Iraqi Sunnis warn of holy war if US troops stay on BAGHDAD: Hundreds of worshippers at a leading Sunni mosque in Baghdad on Friday denounced the American occupation of Iraq and vowed to launch a holy war if the troops did not withdraw soon. “We are running out of patience with the Americans here,” said Ammar al-Azami after prayers at the Abu Hanifa mosque, long a stronghold of loyalists to the ousted Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. “The Americans won’t leave because they are after our oil, water and land. They also want to settle here to protect Israel,” he said....