Iraq Oil Report's Daily Brief compiles the most important news and analysis about Iraq from around the web.
Published June 2, 2013
Tim Arango, Anne Barnard and Duraid Adnan report for The New York Times:
Renewed sectarian killing has brought the highest death toll in Iraq in five years. Young Iraqi scholars at a Shiite Muslim seminary volunteer to fight Sunnis in Syria. Far to the west, in Lebanon, clashes have worsened between opposing sects in the northern city of Tripoli.
In Syria itself, “Shiites have become a main target,” said Malek, an opposition activist who did not want his last name published because of safety concerns. He was visiting Lebanon from a rebel-held Syrian town, Qusayr, where his brother died Tuesday battling Shiite guerrillas from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. “People lost brothers, sons, and they’re angry,” he said.
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Published May 30, 2013
Agence France-Presse reports:
Iraq estimates that it will complete reparations payments to neighbouring Kuwait in 2015 for Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday.
Kuwait has so far received around $30 billion in war reparations, out of about $41 billion, a figure decided by a UN body after Iraqi troops were driven out of Kuwait in 1991 following a seven-month occupation.
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Published May 30, 2013
Ajay Makan reports for The Financial Times:
As Opec ministers filter into Vienna for the twice-yearly meeting of the oil cartel, most are expecting a meeting of nuance rather than headlines. Barring a last-minute U-turn, Opec is set to keep its official production target unchanged at 30m barrels a day.
But the lack of headlines at Opec masks two internal debates which will shape the organisation for years. First, the response to rising oil production capacity within the cartel. Second, the election of the next secretary-general of the organisation. At the centre of both debates is one country: Iraq.
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Published May 30, 2013
Agence France-Presse reports:
Iraqi authorities have contracted a Czech firm to carry out a 10-month restoration of the ancient Arch of Ctesiphon as part of a plan to boost tourism to the once-popular site.
Through the decades of conflict that have wracked Iraq, the famed 6th century monument, which is the world's largest brick-built arch and the last structure still standing from the ancient Persian imperial capital Ctesiphon, has fallen into disrepair.
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Published May 30, 2013
Michael Peel writes for The Financial TImes:
The terrible headlines from this troubled state at the heart of the Middle East have become all too routine. Scores of people are being killed some days – 712 during April alone, according to the UN – in a conflict that pits Sunni against Shia and threatens to further destabilise a boiling region.
So far, so familiar. Except the country in question is not Syria but its neighbour Iraq, which has this year slipped into a deadly crisis. At least 66 people were killed in a series of car bombs on Monday, another of the increasingly frequent bloodbaths in the battle between members of the country’s Sunni minority and Nouri al-Maliki’s Shia-led government.
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Published May 29, 2013
Xinhua reports:
Bomb attacks in Iraq overnight killed 20 people and wounded 47, raising the casualties for the day to 38 killed and 91 wounded, the police said on Wednesday.
In central Iraq, a car bomb and a roadside bomb struck the popular Shalal market in Shaab district in the northeastern part of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 12, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
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Published May 29, 2013
Stephen Wicken writes for the Institute for the Study of War:
The political participation of the Sunni Arab minority in Iraq is critical to the security and stability of the state. At present, they are functionally excluded from government, with those that do participate coopted by the increasingly authoritarian Shi‘a Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Without effective political representation, the Sunni in Iraq are left with few alternatives to address their grievances against the Maliki government. The important decisions lie ahead on whether to pursue their goals via political compromise, federalism, or insurgency.
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Published May 29, 2013
Al Jazeera with Agencies reports:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has vowed to confront perpetrators of violence following a recent spate of car bombings in and around Baghdad that left at least 68 people dead.
In a show of cabinet unity, al-Maliki appeared on Tuesday with four leading ministers, including the country's two most senior Sunni politicians, to speak of his government's insistence on facing down the fighters.
"The cabinet discussed seriously today all the challenges facing the security situation and the steps that the council of ministers should adopt to confront the current crisis" he said.
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Published May 28, 2013
Agence France-Presse reports:
It was the 60-minute mark in Iraq's football friendly against Liberia and fans in Baghdad were nervously hoping against hope that their national side would ward off defeat.
Then explosions just a short distance from the stadium yanked their minds back to what is an all-too-familiar story in the violence-plagued city.
Two car bombs went off about 20 minutes apart at used car dealerships in Habibiyah, both echoing through the stadium as Iraq battled to overcome a 1-0 deficit on Monday afternoon.
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Published May 27, 2013
Agence France-Presse reports:
A series of bombings in and around the Iraqi capital killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens on Monday, security and medical officials said.
Four car bombs in Baghdad killed at least 10 people and wounded 39, while two blasts near the capital left at least five more dead and 14 wounded, officials said.
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