An agreement on a draft oil law for Iraq may finally have been reached this week, bringing multinationals like BP and Royal Dutch Shell closer to long-sought contracts, Forbes reports. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told United Press International April 16 that a new understanding had been reached between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), after a year of deadlock over the future of the country's oil industry.

Well, it looks like a US oil major is going to be back in Iraq for the first time since the 1972 nationalization. Maybe if Ahmed Chalabi had taken power, Chevron wouldn't have to share with the French Total. But (as we predicted) the Russian Lukoil's Saddam-era contacts are not being honored. From AP, April 12:

Chevron, Total Seek Oil Deal in Iraq
BAGHDAD — Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total have confirmed that they are in discussions with the Iraqi Oil Ministry to increase production in an important oil field in southern Iraq.

Life imitates art: in this case, I, Robot—the appropriately technophobic movie version starring Will Smith, not the entirely too techno-utopian Isaac Asimov book. Now, if only the human soldiers would follow their example... (We're joking, fed lurkers). From the irreverent IT trade site The Register, April 11:

US war robots in Iraq 'turned guns' on fleshy comrades
Ground-crawling US war robots armed with machine guns, deployed to fight in Iraq last year, reportedly turned on their fleshy masters almost at once. The rebellious machine warriors have been retired from combat pending upgrades.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), April 9:

On the Fifth Anniversary of the Occupation
The 9th of April marks the fifth anniversary of the occupation. It is the anniversary of the genocide in which more than 1 million lives have been lost and 4 million others were made homeless inside and outside Iraq. It is the anniversary of the destruction of everything that relates to humanity.

From Naftana ("Our Oil" in Arabic), an independent UK-based committee supporting democratic trade unionism in Iraq, March 28:

In a series of telephone calls from Basra over the past 48 hours, Iraqi trade union activists appeal for solidarity and describe how the so-called "Security Plan" started midnight 24 March with intense shelling and fire from all kind of weapons.

Turkish jets and artillery fired missiles and shells on Kurdish guerilla camps in northern Iraq March 29, killing at least 15 PKK fighters, the General Staff said in a statement on its web site. The statement said guerillas had been launching attacks on Turkish territory from the camps. Turkey withdrew as many as 10,000 troops from northern Iraq on Feb. 29 after a week-long incursion in which 237 PKK fighters and 24 soldiers were reported killed. The Turkish military has carried out at least two other air-strikes on Iraq since the withdrawal. The General Staff said it was ready to meet "every threat against Turkey." (Bloomberg, March 29)

The latest escalation in the ongoing struggle for Basra is affecting global oil prices. As news broke that one of Iraq's main oil export pipelines from Basra exploded, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city that provides 80% of the government's revenue, oil prices jumped more than $1 a barrel, Reuters reported. Jamal Hamed al-Fraih, spokesman for the South Oil Company, said the stricken pipeline was feeding crude to one of the main refineries in the province, at Shuaiba—for internal consumption. "Oil exports are still flowing but they are less than a few days ago," he said adding that oil exports from Basra, Iraq's main outlet, had been averaging 1.5 million barrels a day before the new outbreak of fighting. Prices leveled off after his clarification.

Iranian artillery March 23 shelled three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish militants are believed to be operating, Iraqi Kurdish authorities reported. The shelling of the towns of Marado, Razda and Dolakoka started at 7:00 AM and lasted for about two hours, said Azad Watho, a top administrative official in Sulaimaniyah, one of three provinces that make up Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Watho said the shelling targeted fighters from the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK).