IRAQ BRIEFING

• Clutching pictures of relatives they lost, survivors of Saddam Hussein’s 1988 chemical weapons attack gathered at a memorial service in the northern town of Halabja Tuesday to remember the thousands who died... and to thank the USA.

• US and Polish forces have uncovered a terrorist training camp near the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala. This is unusual, as Karbala lies well within the southern Shi'ite area of Iraq, and could point to the involvement of Iranian-backed Shi'ite organizations like the Badr Brigades, the Mahdi Army, or Hezbollah.

• Iraqi foreign fighters apparently weren't received too well by the general population, with the former blaming the latter for selling them out to the Americans.

• 4 Sunni mosques in Baghdad have been attacked between March 10-11, likely by members of Sadr's Mahdi Army angry over the Ashura Massacre.

• Assassination attempts were made on Arab and Turkmen leaders near the troubled city of Kirkuk, with the former attempt succeeding. Clearly, someone is trying to stir up ethnic rivalries in the city for reasons yet unknown.

• The Iraqi population is divided along ethnic lines as to what role the UN should play in the reconstruction of their nation.

• Despite Spain and Honduras's decisions to withdraw their troops from Iraq, most of the coalition is standing firm in the wake of al-Qaeda's threats.

• Kurdish authorities in Sulaymaniyah have thwarted an al-Qaeda plot to carry out attacks during the Kurdish new year.

• Even after his capture, Saddam Hussein isn't saying much to his US interrogators, instead preferring to debate them.

IRAN REPORTS

• Did an armed struggle break out in the Iranian city of Fereydoon-Kenar? Various reports are claiming as much, so we'll have to just wait and see for now.

• US troops in Iraq may have exchanged gunfire with Iranian border guards on March 14. In case anybody's curious, the Iranians fired first.

• The Middle East Intelligence Bulletin has an interesting profile of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iran's de facto subordinate in Lebanon.

• Recently, a number of Iranian MPs took a particularly bold step in criticizing Ayatollah Khamenei and the manner in which the most recent "elections" (Reuters uses scare quotes, why can't we?) were carried out in Iran. The result? They're being prosecuted, naturally.

THE WIDER WAR

• According to a new British poll, 13% of British Muslims back al-Qaeda terrorist attacks against the US, with another 15% more or less "on the fence" in this regard. Given the lively presence of al-Muhajiroun, MIRA, ARC, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and other al-Qaeda front organizations in the UK, I'm pleasantly surprised that the figure isn't much higher.

• Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf is saying that al-Qaeda masterminded the assassination attempts against him (a conclusion I trust most of us had already reached), naming a Libyan national as the mastermind behind the operation.

• The US offensive in Afghanistan continues, killing 12 Taliban near Kandahar. The ranking French general in Afghanistan, meanwhile, is saying that bin Laden has slipped the dragnet, at least for the time being.

• Tajik authorities have arrested a man with 3 grams of factory-grade plutonium. That isn't a lot - but what sends a chill down your spine is where he was heading to sell the material.

• Command Post is reporting that Syria's ruling Baathists (which themselves are little more than a front for the Alawite Shi'ites) are having their hands full suppressing a Kurdish uprising in Qameshli that may have all the makings of a second Hama.

• Saudi security services killed 2 al-Qaeda operatives during a gunfight that broke out at a checkpoint in Riyadh. One of them, Khaled Ali Haj, is a key al-Qaeda leader who took over the organization's activities in the Gulf after the capture of Abd Rahim al-Nashiri and Ali Abd al-Farqasi al-Ghamdi as well as the deaths of Yousef al-Ayyeri and Khalid Jehani.

• Yemen has arrested two local al-Qaeda leaders, including one of the orchestrators of the U.S.S. Cole bombing and the mastermind of the jailbreak that sprung him loose. 8 other al-Qaeda were also arrested, though escaped Cole bombing mastermind Jamal al-Badawi remains at large.

• Turkish police have arrested 18 Islamic extremists, with Istanbul governor Guler saying that they were planning a third wave of suicide attacks.

• Intelwire is reporting that al-Qaeda may be recycling the names of its own dead or incarcerated operatives in the hopes of evading US efforts to locate key operatives and financiers.

• In the wake of increasing signs that the al-Qaeda affiliate GSPC is broadening its horizons in Africa, Algeria, Chad, Mali, and Niger have agreed to unite against the organization. The GSPC leader listed as having been killing in Chad, Amari Saifi, is the same man who masterminded the kidnapping of European tourists earlier last year.

• We try to end on a lighter note if possible. Scottish scientists working in concert with colleagues in California, have discovered that beer bubbles sink. Fascinating.