"Bill Clinton dropped bombs whenever his affair with Monica Lewinsky returned to the headlines." That was my first encounter with war, at six in our western Baghdad residence in 1998, before Bush showered the garden with cluster bombs in 2003. My niece is having hers today, courtesy of Trump.

On the UAE in @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

Twenty three years ago today, America destroyed my country. Two decades of forced encounters with troops, corpses, nightmares, death, its messengers, and both personal dislocations and national and geographic dismemberments. Now, as the warplanes return, Americans should hang their heads in shame.

A child is said to have been murdered when an astray projectile landed on his family's residence in al-Amiriyah, western Baghdad, the site of the infamous shelter massacre of 1991.

Silence from the Iraqi News Agency. We are being laughed at, our lives superfluous.

Warplanes and distant bombing.

A loud explosion near my house in Baghdad. This could have landed in my bedroom. I have so much to say, but I’ll restrain myself for now.

A recorded confession of the "accused's" activities in Iraq shall be shared by Kata'ib Hezbollah. Kittleson's release comes in recognition of al-Sudani's "patriotic stances," a gesture that shall not be repeated in future events.

Shelly Kittleson has been reportedly freed.

Trump’s latest - genocidal - threat against Iran reminds one of a quote often attributed to Oscar Wilde: “America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.”

Just to be clear: is Tehran facing nuclear annihilation tonight?

On another Kabul inferno in @equatormag.bsky.social www.equator.org/articles/the...

First time in the World Cup since 1986, and between many wars and sanctions, under a new wave of US bombing the 'Lions of Mesopotamia' will play, of all places, on US soil. Bring on the French, Iraq is older than history: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YTx...

‘Israel wants a clear line of vision from Rafah to Tehran, and is scorching the earth between them to achieve this.’ Amjad Iraqi on the Israeli military playbook. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Iraq celebrates qualification for FIFA World Cup 2026 https://aje.news/s8milu

“I see Rodin`s fingers in all this / I see him standing at the gates of hell / pointing to an abyss / From which the beasts of the future will charge / There / where two towers fell / and America went mad.” Sargon Boulus

Fascinating how we, Iraqis, always languish at the bottom end of our unchosen leaders' priorities. "The government is committed to protecting diplomatic missions and Western companies, as well as public and private property." @elpais.com english.elpais.com/internationa...

Two paramilitaries were killed and four others wounded in a US-Israeli airstrike on a checkpoint in al-Anbar, al-Hashd al-Shaabi's statement says.

Iraq plays Bolivia in Monterrey tomorrow morning for a seat at the World Cup. The last time Iraq played at the big stage was in Mexico, in 1986. Many wars stood in between, another rages on as they storm the pitch. Here's a piece of mine from the Qatar World Cup. www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

"The invisible enemy" and civilian casualties of aerial bombardment in the April issue of @mondediplo.com mondediplo.com/2026/04/04us...

Warplanes are still heard over Baghdad after explosions echoed in its western suburbs. Reports of airstrikes on al-Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries in both al-Anbar and Babil provinces.

In the @parisreview.bsky.social on an old dream. www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/03...

The warplanes have returned, a familiar terror over western Baghdad.

More explosions in Baghdad.

Loud explosion heard in western Baghdad as we speak. Projectiles have been falling across the city, and numerous US-Israeli airstrikes have killed more paramilitary members of al-Hashd al-Shaabi in Nineveh, Kirkuk, and elsewhere. Kata'ib Sayid al-Shuhada says the number has exceeded 100 martyrs.

"We were kids who loved poetry and cinema." A beautiful dispatch from Tehran, or its rooftops, in @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

“He backed the First Gulf War as a somewhat bumpy but necessary action for the formation of an international legal sphere.” Thomas Meaney on Habermas in the @newleftreview.bsky.social newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

"Still, the silence is puzzling given Lam’s strong public support for the revolution. He called a 1958 painting Sierra Maestra in homage to the mountains where Castro’s rebellion began, and visited Havana regularly from the early 1960s onwards." @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Seven Iraqi security members were killed and thirteen wounded in airstrikes on a Ministry of Defense clinic in al-Habbaniyah, west of Baghdad, the Ministry said in a statement.

I often see documentaries when I write on Iraq. Tonight's was Kasim Abid's 'Life After the Fall' (2008), as the fighter jets return, twenty three years after the fall. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LAg...

Fighter jets over Baghdad.

More explosions echo in the distance.

Kata'ib Hezbollah asks to be involved in ongoing 'investigations' into the recent drone attack on the Iraqi Intelligence in Baghdad, which left one officer dead. 70 percent of the organ's members from the "other sect" (Sunnis), it says, are tied to US, Emirati, and Jordanian intelligence.

Explosions heard in western Baghdad.

After the deadliest night Iraq has seen in a long while, with 15 paramilitaries and 6 Peshmergas killed, school girls were evacuated this morning in Basra to the sound of explosions in nearby Kuwait. See their ponytails and tears: x.com/basratoday__...

“The majority of young Israelis…haven’t read or even heard of the only canonical Hebrew literary work that portrays the reality of the state’s establishment.” —Nathan Thrall

"Rockets launched from Iraq’s Mosul towards U.S. base in northeastern Syria, say sources" @reuters.com www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Adam Hanieh in @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

Baghdad’s arteries are mutilated anew. The concrete t-walls, stained in our blood and scarred by shrapnel, are given an afterlife, as the War on Terror, on our streets.

Warplanes over Baghdad.

Not all news make it beyond small website like the one below. Here's one: A twenty-year-old hangs himself in al-Diwaniyah, an unlivable wasteland in Iraq's impoverished south. www.ninanews.com/Website/News...

The 'digital panopticon' of a state divided according to sect and ethnicity shall keep an eye on those exploiting the new Iraq's "atmosphere of freedom" to stoke sectarianism. ina.iq/ar/security/...

US-Israeli airstrikes on paramilitary positions in Jurf al-Sakhar, while Victory Base in Baghdad receives more attacks from the paramilitaries.

Israel's 'double-tap' reminds me of the second car bombs that often went off in Baghdad during the occupation, after people gathered to pull human limbs and writhing bodies from crime scenes, before they, too, rest motionless in place. Neve Gordon in @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

My colleague Jeremy Harding, one of the finest nonfiction writers of our time, who started out as a reporter in southern Africa, has a new book of essays on African cultural politics in an age of decolonization, destined to be a classic.

Another loud explosion rocks western Baghdad.

A loud explosion is heard in western Baghdad.

Explosions in western Baghdad. The likely target is the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center and Victory Base near the city's airport. It erupted in flames last night.

They struck al-Mansour, once home to Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s bombed residence, where Rifat al-Chadirji’s architecture and a monument to the city’s Abbasid builder remain. “Who came,” the dear Saadi Youssef asked, “all of a sudden, to erect this ruin?”

Loud explosions in Baghdad.