:
Su Jul 2 -

THE IRAQI BLOGGERS -

Not much cheer going on in the Baghdad Blogs right now. There was the bombing in a busy souk reported on the news early Sat. A perhaps minor gripe here: now that we are somewhat more familiar with Baghdad and the layout of that city, I wish reporters would tell us in which district or neighborhood or compass sector an incident is located.

Scanning the Iraqi blogs...

# "THEY" --
This past Friday Zappy posted a morose eulogy to a friendly shopkeeper he knew who just got "assassinated."

It wasn't enough to murder him, they wouldn't allow his family to have a funeral for him!

:: ZAPPY perma ::

# INSIDE A DEADLY
PINBALL MACHINE --
Ishtar reports a battle spilled over onto the grounds of Baghdad U this past Monday:

The Mahdi militia was sweeping Sunni neighborhoods who did not wait for long to raise their arms and engage in a heated battle supported by the National Guards. The fight reached Baghdad university in Bab Al-Mua’dadham. Mortars, PKC, and launchers were exchanged. Students and professors in the university found themselves stuck in the middle of the fight and did not know what to do.

I contacted a friend who works there to check with her. She said:

"There was such a panic; the university became a battle field. Gunmen closed the gates of the campus while they were answering shooting from different sides. And the professors believed that they would be rounded up soon and killed."

-- Light copy edit applied --
:: ISHTAR perma ::

# BLOGODROME --
Salam Adil has posted his weekly compilation of the Iraqi Blogs with excerpts. It's always worth perusing.

This week, what I found especially interesting was his debate about Blogging Baghdad. When is an online presence a Blog? When is it an op-ed or dispatch or transmutated newspaper column? I, too, have had this internal debate about some folks' writings. And, I've come to the conclusion, in the end, it isn't always a simple Black or White situation. It can turn out to be a more complex issue than I originally expected.

:: IRAQI BLOGODROME ::

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