2008 / 2007 / 2006 / 2005 / 2004 / 2003 / 2002 / 2001 and earlier
Kurdish widows' lives frozen in time Patience, the mothers begged their children. Saddam Hussein will fall. Liberty will come. Your father will return. Years went by. The regime fell. Prison doors were opened. Mass graves were unearthed. Still, the women wait.
Fahima Mohammed and Gohar Zubair Abdul-Rahman lost their husbands in 1983. They belong to the tribe of the late Kurdish guerrilla Mustafa Barzani. |
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Friday morning came, and the broad-shouldered young African American made his way to the sedated city's ancient quarters. He walked the streets with the determined gait of a football receiver to Al Azhar Mosque, arriving just as the muezzin's call to prayer summoned the faithful.
— Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2007
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Live from Erbil: Youth gather at Iraqi pop singer Hussam al-Rasam's concert in Iraqi Kurdistan in August 2007. |
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On the road, again: A pair of photos from an August 2007 visit to the rural villages of iraqi Kurdistan's Barzan region. |
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In Lebanon, tree is seen as sign of 'divine victory'
Some would say Fatmeh Shaheen should know better. The 45-year-old psychologist is trained to recognize how a desperate mind might override its own sensibilities in search of solace. But here she is, piling into this chapel-like building in southern Lebanon with hundreds of other Lebanese Shiites to pay homage to a miracle tree.
— Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2007
No way, the band members told their manager. Was she really saying that the same U.S. government pursuing an unpopular war in Iraq now wanted to hire the funk-infused Latin Los Angeles band Ozomatli to travel around the world and play music on behalf of America?
— Los Angeles Times, August 1, 2007
Shah's mourners recall a golden era
Stylish in tiny black dresses and tailored suits, the mourners gathered in the lobby of an upscale downtown hotel. They filled the air with expensive perfume and cologne, their handbags and sunglasses gilded with the logos of Chanel, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana. On Wednesday, as they do every year, scores of Iranian monarchists from around the world were visiting the Egyptian capital to pay homage to the late Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi and dreamily recall the long-lost Middle Eastern belle epoque he represented — to them.
- Los Angeles Times, July 26, 2007
Iranian American's chilling return to homeland
The man in the green uniform at the immigration control counter at Mehrabad airport stamped her passport. Journalist Parnaz Azima said she breathed a bottomless sigh of relief. It was here the intelligence officers often moved in, discreetly guiding visitors to the small office off to the side that every Iranian traveler knows and fears.
— Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2007
Ex-prisoner recalls Iran ordeal
You're free!" the cell leader at Evin prison told the inmate. "Get your stuff together." Stephane Lherbier dared
not trust them.
— Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2007
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Aboard the U.S.S. Stennis, June 2007. |
U.S., Iran do Persian Gulf squeeze Iran and the United States remain so far apart on so many issues that they refuse to talk about them. But in the cramped sea routes of the Persian Gulf, U.S. and Iranian warship sailors and fighter pilots speak to each other daily. They have to. They're practically jostling one another in courteous games of surveillance, counter-surveillance and geopolitical posturing. — Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2007 |
Strategic rift in Bahrain's royal court
Leading members of Bahrain's royal family have thrown their weight behind hard-line Sunni Muslim groups,
some of whom share the outlook of Al Qaeda, in an attempt to counter a perceived Shiite threat, government officials
and critics say.
— Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2007
Mideast has an old Cold War look
In the Gaza Strip,
Islamists aided by Iran finish off forces loyal to Washington's
ally, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. To the
east, in Iraq and Afghanistan, governments attempt to prevent
their nations from turning into proxy battlegrounds. In the
warm waters of the Persian Gulf, U.S. and Iranian warships
nearly bump up against one another. The new Middle East is
starting to look like the old Cold War, with a familiar script
and slightly altered cast.
The confrontation between the United States and Iran, which
overlays and drives much of the strife afflicting the Middle
East, crystallizes most visibly here in Lebanon, where hundreds
of Iran-backed Hezbollah militants remain camped out in tents
next door to the lavishly restored Ottoman-era Grand Serail,
home to the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora.
— Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2007
War's mysterious allure drew U.S. Marine Cpl. Elliot Ruiz back to the parched plains where he nearly lost his life. Last time he was in the Middle East he wound up lying in a pool of his own blood on the pavement near Tikrit, clinging to life after an insurgent attack that badly damaged his leg. This time, four years and countless hours of physical therapy later, he returns as Cpl. Ramirez, one of the lead actors in "Battle for Haditha," an upcoming feature movie exploring the complexities of the Iraq war even as the real conflict rages on
— Los Angeles Times, May 11, 2007
1987 chemical attack still haunts Iran
The roots of Iran's nuclear ambitions wind through this mountaintop town of pine trees and streams along the Iraqi border. Here, on a crystal-clear afternoon 20 years ago, Saddam Hussein's warplanes unleashed a poisonous rain of chemical weapons, killing as many as 113 civilians and injuring thousands more.
— Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2007
The young blacksmith with an easy laugh and the looks of a Kurdish Sean Penn wasn't particularly devout or angry at the West. He didn't aspire to "martyrdom." But five years ago, Karzan Rasool made a decision that haunts him still: He became a holy warrior in the army of Islam. He joined Ansar al Islam, an extremist group with links to Al Qaeda, almost on a whim.
— Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2007
It was just after lunch Thursday when the "surge" arrived at Haidar Karam's doorstep. Out of nowhere, about 50 U.S. troops appeared and circled his northeast Baghdad neighborhood. Half a dozen Humvees arrived 15 minutes later. Snipers took up positions on rooftops. Troops stopped vehicles from moving. They were the leading edge of a Baghdad security plan called Operation Law and Order, part of what the Bush administration has dubbed a "surge" in U.S. troops in Iraq.
— Los Angeles Times, February 16, 2007
The change came several years ago for Maryam Arrakal. Her husband brought a black, all-covering abaya back to this steamy, subtropical town from the desert sands of Saudi Arabia.It contrasted starkly with the pastel saris she normally wore.But in the 12 years that her husband, Kunchava, had been running a Saudi fabric shop, he had become detached from this melting pot of Muslims, Hindus and Christians, and more drawn to the Saudis' strict version of Islam.
— Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2007
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