On May 11, the Asuda women's shelter in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, came under attack by unidentified gunmen. One woman housed at the shelter, a mother of three, was seriously wounded, hit by three bullets. According to the hospital reports, the woman's condition is currently stable after four hours of emergency surgery. The woman was referred to the shelter by municipal authorities in Sulaymaniyah, fearing abuse and "honor killing" after she was accused by her husband of adultery.

Contrary to widespread media reports, BBC says May 9 that the man detained in Mosul is not in fact Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. An earlier statement from the Iraqi defense ministry said that al-Masri had been captured. But an US military spokeswoman, Peggy Kageleiry, said confusion had arisen because a man with a similar name had been detained.

A referendum to decide the fate of Kirkuk—the northern province contested by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, among others—was enshrined in Iraq's 2005 constitution, and was initially scheduled for December 2007. Delayed six months after rival groups were unable to agree on terms, it is now no closer to realization as the deadline looms. UN special envoy to Iraq Staffan de Mistura told AFP: "In December, the question of Kirkuk was a ticking time bomb. The United Nations has stopped the clock."

Even after the humbling of Judith Miller, the Times seems to be up to the same old tricks. The latest propaganda from Michael Gordon is deconstructed by Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher, May 5 (links added):

NYT vs McClatchy on Iran's Link to Iraqi Insurgents
NEW YORK — Michael Gordon, the military writer for The New York Times who contributed several false stories about Iraqi WMD in the runup to the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2002, has written several articles in the past year about Iran's alleged training of Iraqi insurgents—or supplying them with weapons to kill Americans. He produced another major report on this subject for today's Times—based solely on unnamed sources—which is at odds with an account from McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau.

At least eight people were killed and 13 injured May 6 as US aircraft bombed positions of the Mahdi Army militia in Baghdad's Sadr City. (DPA, AP, May 7) Civilians are fleeing Sadr City, but the fighting is spreading beyond the enclave. A rocket slammed into Baghdad's city hall and another hit a downtown park. (AP, May 7) Iran says it will not hold a fourth round of talks with the US on security in Iraq, as long as US forces continue what it called "open bombings" of Shi'ites. (VOA, May 5)

Turkish warplanes launched bombing raids on PKK Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq's Qandil Mountains late May 1. "There has been heavy bombing and many Turkish planes were involved. So far, we have no word of any casualties," PKK spokesman Ahmed Danees told Reuters by telephone. Military sources told Reuters that at least 30 planes were involved in the raids, which they said targeted senior PKK members. (Hurriyet, Reuters, May 2)

Residents of western Baghdad's al-Salam district say militant groups in the area are hunting down women and killing them, and have petitioned the Iraqi parliament for urgent action. "Over the past six months 15 women were killed in al-Salam neighborhood for religious reasons or because they had criticized the militants, or because of their previous affiliation to the Baath Party," MP Safia al-Suhail told the UN news agency IRIN.

From the General Union of Port Workers in Iraq, via US Labor Against the War, April 29:

May Day Message from the Port Workers in Iraq to West Coast dock workers in the US
In solidarity with the ILWU, the General Union of Port Workers in Iraq will stop work for one hour on May Day in the ports of Umm Qasr and Khor Al Zubair.