Free Republic

The gaudy red ring that helped initially identify the corpse of Iran’s Major Gen. Qassem Soleimani is no Hope Diamond, according to local jewelers. Dealers believe the distinctive ring worn by Soleimani is either a red carnelian stone — believed by some Middle East Muslims as able to bestow “blessings”– or possibly an inexpensive ruby that would cost a few hundred bucks. “From the photo, it looks like it’s a carnelian stone — it’s not a ruby; it comes from Africa,” said Maykel Rieth, a professional cutter for R Gems Inc on West 48th Street. “The ring is made out...

The near consensus view of President Donald Trump’s decision to remove US special forces from the Syrian border with Turkey is that Trump is enabling a Turkish invasion and double crossing the Syrian Kurds who have fought with the Americans for five years against ISIS. Trump’s move, the thinking goes, harms US credibility and undermines US power in the region and throughout the world. There are several problems with this narrative. The first is that it assumes that until this week, the US had power and influence in Syria when in fact, by design, the US went to great lengths...

When Islamic State fighters tried to storm the Tigris River town of Dhuluiya north of Baghdad this week, they were repelled by a rare coalition of Sunni tribal fighters inside the town and Shias in its sister city Balad on the opposite bank. The assault, which began late on Tuesday and ran into Thursday, was one of several major battles in recent days in which Sunni tribes joined pro-government forces against the militants, in what Baghdad and Washington hope is a sign of increasing cooperation across sectarian lines to save the country. Further north, another powerful Sunni tribe fought alongside...

Top Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, says the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization is the “Party of Satan.” In an interview with Al Arabiya aired on Sunday, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, slammed Lebanese Hezbollah group as “party of Satsan” that seeks to “sow discord” among Muslims.

Sufis, Iranian police clash in holy city: report Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - IranMania.com LONDON, February 14 (IranMania) - Clashes broke out Monday between members of the Sufi sect and Iranian police in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, the semi-official Fars news agency and websites reported. Fars said some 50 Sufis demonstrated against the closure of their place of worship in Qom. "There was some violence," it said, without elaborating. The website Baztab, which is close to the conservative camp in Iran, said the security forces used tear gas to break up the protest after local authorities decided...

At least 41 people have been killed and nearly 150 wounded in three attacks near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and in Baghdad, police say. Two booby-trapped trucks exploded about 4:00am (local time) in the village of Khaznah, 20 kilometres east of Mosul, leaving 25 people dead and 70 others wounded. Thirty-five houses were destroyed in the village, which is the home of members of the tiny Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish origin. In Baghdad, two car bombs went off as day labourers were gathering in the early morning hours looking for jobs. The first bomb exploded at...

Dennis Ross, Special Advisor on Iran for the Secretary of State, has a book coming out next month that inconveniently takes issue with the Obama Administration’s thesis of “linkage.” “Of all the policy myths that have kept us from making real progress in the Middle East,” Ross writes in a chapter titled “The Mother of All Myths,” “one stands out for its impact and longevity: the idea that if only the Palestinian conflict were solved, all other Middle East conflicts would melt away.” Meanwhile, the Obama Administration – which Ross currently works for – is pressuring Israel in part because...

Reporting from Baghdad - Suicide bombers killed at least 79 people today in two attacks in Iraq, reviving fears that Sunni extremists are gearing up for a new campaign of violence just as U.S. forces are preparing to pull back from the nation's cities. There were no immediate indications that the bombings in Baghdad and nearby Diyala province were coordinated. But they vividly demonstrated that militant groups are still capable of staging attacks that cause mass casualties, as they did in the darkest days of the country's 2006-07 sectarian war.

KALSU, Iraq – The government of Musayyib hosted a celebration of security and economic growth at the city’s police station Oct. 8. In a move to help reduce sectarian violence in North Babil, leaders from the predominately Shia city of Musayyib came together with sheiks and representatives of the largely Sunni region of Jurf As Sukhr to share their optimism for the growth and development of the entire area. With Sunni extremists influence such from the north and west, and rogue Shia militias from the south, the region surrounding Musayyib and Jurf has been a sectarian fault line for years....

A military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear weapons program appears increasingly inevitable, a senior American evangelical leader said on Tuesday. "The horrible terror of the almost wild-eyed behavior of [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad is enough to cause any thinking person to ask: Is there another way than some military intervention?" Pastor Jack W. Hayford, president of the International Church of Foursquare Gospel, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. "Confrontation seems inevitable," he said. The 73-year-old Los Angeles-based Hayford is heading a four-day conference of more than 3,000 church leaders and laymen from around the world in Jerusalem, in...

Riots reinforce Bahrain rulers' fears By Bill Law in Manama, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:11am BST 22/07/2007 The acrid smell of tear gas hung in the air as a group of young men drifted across a street where piles of garbage and tyres were burning. Storm of protest: Shia youths carry an injured man after a clash with the security forces in Bahrain Not far ahead stood a line of riot police. An officer wearing a balaclava gestured at the youths to stop and as his colleagues fired off a volley of tear gas canisters, he shouted: "You have no...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ailing Iraqis waited behind concertina wire at an abandoned schoolhouse Saturday in the capital's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City where U.S. Army medics had set up a surprise medical clinic. A child whose legs were stiff with disease hobbled toward U.S. Army medics. Another man held his head where a gash swelled with infection, according to AP Television News footage. The ad-hoc clinic was part of a growing military outreach under the month-old Baghdad security plan. In most cases, such clinics close within hours, to avoid attacks.

Next week marks the fourth anniversary of Operation Iraq Freedom. How does CNN plan to observe the event? An update, perhaps, on General Petraeus’ new strategy to win the war, and the initial positive – if still early – reports from the battlefield? Please. I did say "CNN." The network is set to run a one hour special: “Death Squads Reveals Links between Shia Death Squads, Iraqi Security Forces.” CNN's report will in significant part be based on the work of an anonymous journalist. Before considering the CNN report, let's review some of the recent developments in Iraq, as...

'The jihad now is against the Shias, not the Americans' As 20,000 more US troops head for Iraq, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, the only correspondent reporting regularly from behind the country's sectarian battle lines, reveals how the Sunni insurgency has changed Saturday January 13, 2007 The Guardian (UK) An Iraqi man who was stopped by US troops while driving a car loaded with weapons in Ramadi, a Sunni-dominated area, is questioned by soldiers. Photograph: Chris Hondros/Getty Images One morning a few weeks ago I sat in a car talking to Rami, a thick-necked former Republican Guard commando who now procures arms for...

Senator Lieberman showed the country his courage and his wisdom last year. He showed the cowards, the political opportunists and the know-nothings in the Democratic Party that there are a few people of principle who understand what was at stake in Iraq in 2003 and is even more at stake today.

Rogue TV tells Sunnis 'to eat Shias for lunch' By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Colin Freeman, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:14am GMT 10/12/2006 Sporting an olive green Ba'ath Party uniform and a bushy moustache, the newsreader barks his bulletins between blasts of patriotic Saddam-era martial music. Presenters on satellite TV channel Al Zahraa call on Sunnis to act before Shias can kill them With his gleeful boasts about Iraqi insurgent strikes on US troops, his demeanour is reminiscent of "Comical Ali", the former information minister who famously boasted of victory as American tanks rolled into Baghdad. For coalition commanders...

Sectarian violence continues as January hanging for deposed dictator is predicted by confidant of the Iraqi Prime MinisterIRAQ’S fallen dictator Saddam Hussein would be hanged by the end of January, an adviser to the country’s Prime Minister predicted yesterday, while Shia citizens demanded that his execution should be televised. “I don’t think it will drag on beyond January of next year,” Haider al-Abadi, an MP who is a confidant of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said. Saddam, 69, was sentenced to death on Sunday for ordering a brutal crackdown that claimed the lives of 148 Shia from the village of Dujail,...

Shias add fuel to hatred with 'gangsta-rap' incitement By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Colin Freeman (Filed: 05/03/2006) Shia musicians in Iraq are raising sectarian tensions by producing "gangsta-rap" songs in which they call for Shias to kill Sunnis. The hate-filled lyrics of singers such as Riyadh al Wadi have proved a big hit in Shia areas after the tit-for-tat killings that have pushed the country to the brink of civil war in the past two weeks. In his songs, he urges fellow Shias to ignore the appeals of their most senior cleric not to retaliate against acts of provocation...

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thanks, please be seated. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. It's good to be back at the Naval Academy. I'm pleased to provide a convenient excuse for you to miss class. This is the first year that every class of midshipmen at this Academy arrived after the attacks of September the 11th, 2001. Each of you has volunteered to wear our nation's uniform in a time of war -- knowing all the risks and dangers that accompany military service. Our citizens are grateful for your devotion to duty -- and America is proud of...

IN A rare show of national solidarity, thousands of Sunnis have joined Iraqi Shias in donating money, jewellery and toys to the families of the 1,000 victims of last week’s bridge stampede. “We never expected such a response. The disaster has been a trigger showing how unified Iraqis are,” said Ali Alkhalidi, the chief correspondent at the Iraqiya TV station in central Baghdad, where the main appeal centre is located. “People have come from all over Iraq to give money for the bereaved: Sunnis, Shia, Turkomen, Kurds.” The tragedy occurred last Wednesday, when panic spread through a million-strong crowd of...