Suicide bombers targeting Shi'ite worshippers killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more at two Baghdad mosques Oct. 2. They attacks came as Shi'ites marked the first day of Eid, a three-day celebration that follows Ramadan, Islam’s holy month. A man strapped with explosives killed at least 12 worshipers as they left al-Rasoul mosque in Jadida, a largely Shi'ite district. Another struck a crowd of worshippers outside a mosque in Zafaraniyah, also in southern Baghdad. (McClatchy, Oct. 3; Bloomberg, Oct. 2)

A car bomb detonated Sept. 30 near a crowded restaurant at lunchtime in central Baghdad's Karrada district, killing at least four civilians and wounding nine others. Most of the victims were eating lunch on the first day of the five-day Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan for Sunnis. Eid begins for Shi'ites two days later. On Sept. 28, a suicide car bombing in the same district killed and wounded scores of Iraqis getting preparing for Eid al-Fitr. (CNN, Sept. 30)

Royal Dutch Shell formally signed a joint venture with an Iraq's state-owned South Oil Company to recapture gas that now goes to waste during oil extraction in the Basra fields. The deal is estimated to be worth $4 billion. Under the agreement, Iraq will control 51% while Shell will hold the remaining 49% of the venture. The gas, estimated at 5 billion cubic feet per day (up from 1 bcfd), will be both for for domestic use and export, said Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani.

Iraqis protested the deaths of at least seven people during a US air strike in Ad Dawr, in northern Iraq's Salahuddin province on Sept. 19—the same town where Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003. The US says the raid successfully singled out an "emir" in the bombing network of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) who was suspected of involvement in attacks along the Tigris River valley. But Iraqi officials said the strike used excessive force in killing eight members of one family, who they said were innocent. The officials said the dead were five men in their 20s and 30s and three women aged between 20 and 58. They accused the US forces of shooting down men and women from the air as they fled.

Our suspicion that the putative "success" of the "surge" is an illusion—and that the (relative) decline of violence in Iraq is simply due to the fact that the sectarian cleansing has been largely effected—is now backed up by satellite data. From the high-tech trade journal Physorg.com, Sept. 19:

The US military said Sept. 17 that three soldiers have been charged with premeditated murder committed in an unspecified incident in or near Baghdad in March or April 2007. Sgt. John E. Hatley, 40, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Mayo, 27, and Sgt. Michael P. Leahy, 26, all formerly assigned to the 1st Batallion, 18th Infantry Regiment, are also charged with conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and obstruction of justice. Two of the soldiers had said in sworn statements that the three had killed four handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head beside a Baghdad canal. Hatley and Leahy have also been charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder over a separate incident in or near Baghdad in early January 2007, according to the statement from the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command based in Graefenwoehr, Germany. (AFP, BBC, Sept. 17)

The number of confirmed cases of cholera has risen to 107 in central and southern parts of Iraq since an outbreak of the disease in late August. Ihssan Jaafar, director of Iraq's Public Health Directorate, said cases have been confirmed in Baghdad, Babil, Karbala, Najaf, Diyala, Basra and Maysan. Jaafar said health authorities are raising awareness about the disease through posters and TV spots. (IRIN, Sept. 18)

At least 31 were killed and 60 wounded in a car bomb attack Sept. 12 in the center of the Shi'ite town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. The bombing occurred at dusk as many residents rushed to make last-minute purchases from the central market before going home to break the Ramadan fast. Dujail is one of the few largely Shiite towns in Salahuddin Province, which had been among the most violent in Iraq before former Sunni insurgents joined Awakening Councils and began cooperating with US forces. Saddam Hussein was sent to the gallows in December 2006 for ordering the execution of 148 Dujail residents after a failed attempt on his life when he visited the town in 1982.