Daily News Brief — July 26, 2010

Suicide blast kills six at Baghdad office of Al-Arabiya T.V. station   A suicide bomber killed six people when he blew himself up in a minibus in front of the Baghdad office of Al-Arabiya’s T.V. station early this morning. The bomber was let through two checkpoints after security guards checked his identification, said Iraqi military spokesman ...

Suicide blast kills six at Baghdad office of Al-Arabiya T.V. station  

Suicide blast kills six at Baghdad office of Al-Arabiya T.V. station  

A suicide bomber killed six people when he blew himself up in a minibus in front of the Baghdad office of Al-Arabiya’s T.V. station early this morning. The bomber was let through two checkpoints after security guards checked his identification, said Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi. He said the bombing had the”clear fingerprints of al-Qaeda,” and that documents had surfaced which indicate al-Qaeda had a plan to target Arabic media offices in Iraq. The six killed in the attack were three guards, a driver, a passer-by and a 50-year-old cleaner; sixteen others were wounded.

Despite Al-Arabiya’s popularity, Iraqi militants accuse the station of being too pro-western; the station, which has been targeted in the past, regularly interviews U.S. presidents.

 

  • Israeli planes attack Gazan tunnels.
  • The EU is set to pass a new set of sanctions against Iran.
  • United Arab Emirates will block BlackBerry use.
  • Israeli PM Netanyahu says Palestinians are stalling direct peace talks.
  • Fighting erupts in northern Yemen a day after ceasefire is brokered.

Event notice: Join the New America Foundation today (7/26) at 1:00 pm EST for a discussion with Jessica Montell, Executive Director of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem (NAF).

Daily Snapshot  

 

Iraqi soldiers seal the scene following a suicide car bomb that targeted the Al-Arabiya TV channel’s office in central Baghdad on July 26,2010; the bomb detonated killing several people, the interior ministry said (ALIaL-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images). 

Arguments & Analysis
‘Arab civil society, limited and growing’ (Rami Khouri, Daily Star)
While ‘civil society’ has tended to languish in the Arab world and remains a passive forum dependent upon state discretion, a line between the state and NGOs, private groups, and aid dispensaries continues to blur. Much more attention must be paid to the ways in which ‘civil society’ is often subject to cooptation, resulting in the entrenchment of elite power–rather than its curtailment.

‘Al-Qaedain the Sahel’ (Jeremy Keenan, Al-Jazeera English)
Since 9/11, America’s efforts to fight terrorism in the Sahel have had the effect of having more to do with Algeria’s regional and internal power dynamics than they have had with responding to strategic threats posed by Al-Qaeda. Indeed, the West would do well to re-consider its anti-terror methods in the Sahel, as they have been largely counter-productive and encourage only further instability in the region.

‘Israel interfering in U.S. efforts in the West Bank’ (Barak Ravid, Haaretz)

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sheds light onto the U.S. project of creating a Palestinian security force in the West Bank. Among other things, it has found cases of Israel’s interference with, and opposition to, several efforts of the U.S. to implement its plans. 

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Maria Kornalian is the executive associate for the Project on Middle East Political Science and an assistant editor for the Middle East Channel.

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