Iraq News (15 May)

The Good: The Prime Minister remains in Mosul supervising the Iraqi-led, US-backed security operation. The op has had a name change from "Lion's Roar" to "Umm al Rabain" or "Operation Mother of Two Springs". Huh...I guess it doesn't translate so well into English, but the offensive has led to the detention of 560 wanted individuals according to Al-Sumaria. The Iraqi Army head, General Zebari, has also stated that the operation consulted with the head sheikhs in the area (note: one of the problems with the Basra operation is that the tribes were not consulted beforehand, the Iraqi Army has apparently learned from their mistakes). A Sadr spokesman has affirmed that the Mahdi Army will lay down their arms in Sadr City and elsewhere. The French have convicted five terrorist recruiters, who deceived impoverished, young men to go wage holy war in Iraq, which includes the "glory" of intimidating local civilians, chopping off people's heads, and other brutal atrocities.

The Bad: A teenage suicide bomber has killed 23 people at a funeral west of Baghdad in the Abu Ghraib suburb. The funeral was for the police chief of Fallujah's uncle, and it was meant to send a "message" to the Sahwa councils. The NY Times reports that the child was crying shortly before he blew himself up (presumably by remote control). Sick fuckin' shit. Also, a female suicide bomber killed an Iraqi Army officer near Baghdad, and she was 16-18 years of age. An Iraqi Islamic Party parliament member (large Sunni political party) narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Baghdad yesterday.

The Ugly: The next media outlet up to the plate to stir up U.S.-Iranian tensions is the Associated Press. There are reports that the head of the Iranian Quds Force, Suleimani, got all pissy with the Iraqi delegation that went to Tehran last week. If there's anyone that wants a war between the US and Iran over Iraq, it's probably the damn American media. Gotta boost those ratings somehow.