Iranian-backed Iraqi militias conducted up to half of the roughly 1,000 drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia

Bad news! What to do about that?

"... Iranian-backed Iraqi militias conducted up to half of the roughly 1,000 drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia during the war, according to unnamed sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal on April 21. CTP-ISW previously assessed that it very unlikely that Iranian-backed Iraqi militias would conduct drone attacks against regional states if the Iranian regime opposed such attacks, which suggests that Iran has not ordered its militia partners to cease attacking regional state. ..."

Iran Update Evening Special Report, April 21, 2026

Iranian commander tells Iraqi Islamist terrorists to attack US and Israel

Bad news! The hydra of fanatic and suicidal Islamist terrorism sponsored by Iran is not yet slain!

"A statement released by Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah on April 18 appears to confirm that IRGC Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani discussed preparations for renewed conflict with the United States and Israel during his meetings with Iraqi militia leaders in Baghdad on April 18. Ghaani may have specifically discussed enhancing coordination between Iraqi militias and other Axis of Resistance groups against the United States, Israel, and the Gulf states in the event of renewed conflict."

Iran Update Evening Special Report, April 19, 2026 | Critical Threats

What's for dinner? Tooth enamel reveals what early Mesopotamians really ate

Amazing stuff! I believe, there were other studies in the past that analyzed enamel to determine e.g. what food was consumed.

"... In particular, the team focused on zinc isotopes (different versions of the same element) in the enamel, as they detail in their study ... "Zinc isotope analysis of dental enamel provides a viable alternative for reconstructing diet in southern Mesopotamia, where collagen preservation is poor," they write.

The zinc in your teeth changes depending on what you are eating. For example, plants absorb zinc from the soil through their roots and carry a distinctive chemical signature. When animals eat plants, the isotope signal shifts slightly in predictable ways as it moves through the food chain. By measuring those shifts in human teeth, scientists can estimate how much plant versus animal food people consumed. In addition to zinc, the team examined carbon and oxygen isotopes and trace elements such as barium and strontium. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

Understanding ancient diets is one of the keys to reconstructing lifeways and social structures. In what are now arid regions like southern Mesopotamia, poor collagen preservation has long hindered direct dietary reconstructions. Here, we apply zinc isotope analysis to human and faunal dental enamel from the third-millennium BCE site of Abu Tbeirah (southern Iraq), offering a method to overcome this limitation. Combined with carbon and oxygen isotopes and trace element ratios (Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca), zinc isotopes reveal an omnivorous diet based on C3 cereals, terrestrial animal protein, and possibly freshwater resources, with no evidence of marine fish consumption. These findings offer individual-level insight into subsistence practices, early-life nutrition, and animal management within a nonelite population in early-urbanized southern Mesopotamia.

Abstract

Reconstructing past lifeways and diets is essential to understanding the emergence of urban societies. However, in what are now arid environments like southern Mesopotamia, poor collagen preservation has long hampered direct isotopic analysis of trophic levels. This limitation has left key gaps in our understanding of subsistence in one of the world’s earliest urban heartlands.

Here, we apply zinc isotope analysis to human and faunal dental enamel from the third-millennium BCE site of Abu Tbeirah (Iraq), integrating δ13C, δ18O, and trace element ratios (Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca). This multiproxy approach reveals an omnivorous diet based on C3 cereals, terrestrial animal products (likely including pigs), and limited freshwater resources, with no or little evidence of marine fish consumption, despite the site’s proximity to the ancient shoreline. Dietary patterns do not vary by sex, suggesting broad access to similar food sources within this nonelite population. Moreover, zinc and carbon isotopes proved valuable in identifying animal feeding practices. Our results provide direct dietary evidence from southern Mesopotamia, overcoming long-standing preservation challenges. The results allow us to evaluate specific expectations about diet and animal management in a collagen-poor context, also highlighting early-life feeding behaviors. They demonstrate the power of zinc isotopes to reconstruct trophic level in collagen-poor contexts, opening broad avenues for bioarchaeological research in early complex societies."

What's for dinner? Tooth enamel reveals what early Mesopotamians really ate

When collagen fails: Zinc isotopes unlock Sumerian lifeways in southern Mesopotamia (open access)

Fig. 2 Scatterplots of isotopic values divided in (A) δ66Zn vs. δ18O in humans, grouped by feeding behavior; (B) δ66Zn vs δ18O, with symbols indicating species and color indicating drinking strategy; (C) δ66Zn vs. δ13C in humans, grouped by feeding behavior; (D) δ66Zn vs. δ13C, with symbols indicating species and color indicating feeding behavior; (E) δ18O vs. δ13C in humans, grouped by feeding behavior; (F) δ18O vs. δ13C, with symbols indicating species and color indicating drinking strategy, compared with available data from Ur

Saddam Hussein: The Rise, Fall And Capture Of Iraq’s Dictator

Recommendable! What a monster he was!

Baghdad gets a makeover: Iraqi capital undergoes major renovation

Recommendable! Good news!

The Tower of Babel: Jewish History in the Torah 3 (Noach) with Henry Abramson

Recommendable!

Eight Years Later, Kurdistan Continues to Work Toward Independence in Iraq

Recommendable! The Kurdish struggle for independence continuous on. I first became aware of it some 50 years ago in my hometown Frankfurt am Main, Germany thanks to meeting Kurds in exile living in my hometown, pamphlets, street protests for an independent Kurdistan etc.

Let's not forget the Kurdish minority living in Turkey or 18-20% of its population!

Eight Years Later, Kurdistan Continues to Work Toward Independence "Kurdistan has shifted from chasing statehood to fortifying its economy and governance, positioning itself as one of the Middle East’s rare zones of stability."

Iraq, According to King Faisal I of Iraq (life 1885-1933, reign 1921-33)

Recommendable! Touches colonialism by France and the UK, nation building and more! Not to be confused with the Faisal monarch of Saudi Arabia.

Caveat: I did not read the entire article.

"... Perhaps Faisal’s most famous reflection, captured in the book, was his admission that Iraq was not yet a nation at all. He knew the trajectory was unsustainable. He also recognized that Iraq’s diversity could only be an asset if it was woven into a national identity. ..."

Iraq, According to King Faisal - by Faisal Saeed Al Mutar "A century ago, Iraq’s first king warned that sectarianism and foreign meddling would destroy the country. He was right."

US forces kill ISIS commander in charge of international attacks in Syria together with Iraqi forces

Concerning and risky! Was Syria informed about or consented to this operation?

"... Qader, also known as Abdul Rahman Al-Halabi, was involved in the 2013 bombing of the Iranian embassy in Lebanon — which killed 23 people — and multiple terror plots in Europe and the United States, the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service said ..."

US forces kill ISIS commander in charge of international attacks "American and Iraqi forces took out an ISIS leader responsible for the 2013 Lebanon bombing in the latest strike on the senior members inside Syria."

George W. Bush: The War on Terror | PragerU

Recommendable!

Iraq has Become a Recruiting Ground for Russia’s War Machine

I have been saying here on my blog for some time that the Russo-Ukrainian War is like World War III given all the involved countries!

Google AI search confirms these recruiting efforts by Putin the Terrible!

"... The videos are undeniable. Iraqi boys, some barely out of their teens, stand in Russian uniforms on the frozen frontlines of Ukraine. One of them shivers in the snow and says to the camera that he is “on the frontlines” and may not return. Another confesses: "Don’t let anyone fool you, there is no safety here, the danger is above 95 percent.”

Why would anyone choose this fate? Because recruiters promise them what Iraq has never given them: money, land, and a future. One Iraqi fighter explained the deal in brutal terms—foreign recruits receive a signing bonus of $10,000 to $20,000, a monthly salary of $2,500, a piece of land, and a Russian passport after a year of service. Another adds that if he dies, his family will receive $200,000 in compensation—if his body is ever recovered. In Baghdad, the government offers nothing but unemployment and humiliation. In Moscow, the offer is death packaged as an opportunity. ..."

Iraq Becomes a Recruiting Ground for Russia’s War Machine "Desperation, corruption, and foreign influence are turning young Iraqis into cannon fodder for Russia’s army, dying in a war that has nothing to do with them."

Iraq and Turkey Launch a Game-Changing Infrastructure Project - Dry Suez Canal

Good news!

"... the Development Road—a project some are already calling Iraq's Suez Canal—represents a departure from the dysfunction of the past. ...

The Development Road (also known as the "Dry Canal") is Iraq's most ambitious infrastructure plan in decades: a 1,200-kilometer multi-modal corridor that will link the Grand Faw Port in southern Iraq to the Turkish border and, by extension, to Europe. The project includes both highway and railway lines, cutting across ten provinces and offering a new overland alternative to maritime shipping through the Suez Canal. ..."

Iraq and Turkey Launch a Game-Changing Infrastructure Project "A 1,200-kilometer corridor connecting Iraq to Europe could transform the region’s trade landscape—and Iraq’s future"

Map source

Archaeologists uncover monumental relief of King Ashurbanipal in ancient city of Nineveh

Amazing stuff!

"A team ... excavating in Iraq made a spectacular find: In the throne room of the North Palace of King Ashurbanipal in the ancient city of Nineveh, the archeologists discovered large portions of a monumental relief that depicts the ruler of the Assyrian empire from the seventh century BC along with two important deities and other figures. The relief was carved on a massive stone slab 5.5 meters long and three meters high and weighing approximately 12 tons.

The find is extraordinary for the researchers not only for its size, but also for the scenes depicted. “Among the many relief images of Assyrian palaces we know of, there are no depictions of major deities,” ..."

Archaeologists uncover monumental relief of King Ashurbanipal in ancient city of Nineveh

Spectacular Find in the Ancient City of Nineveh (original news release) "Archeologists From Heidelberg University Discover Major Portions Of A Large-Scale Relief With Depictions Of Assyrian Deities"

Fragment of the discovered relief

3D model of the relief: The finds are marked in dark gray, the light gray part represents a reconstruction based on the finds. King Ashurbanipal is depicted in the center.

Gertrude Bell: Iraq’s Uncrowned Queen

Very recommendable! What an amazing lady!

Iraq's $17BN Plan to Become a Trade Superpower by constructing a mega port to compete with the Suez Canal

Amazing stuff!

Excavations uncover evidence for the emergence and rejection of the earliest state institutions in Iraq

Amazing stuff!

"Excavations at a 4th millennium BCE settlement in Iraqi Kurdistan have revealed new clues about the origins of the world's earliest governing institutions, suggesting they emerged partly from their ability to provide large-scale meals, potentially as payment for labor. ...

The excavations at Shakhi Kora uncovered a long sequence of structures spanning several centuries. Over time, the cultural items found at the site shifted from reflecting primarily local traditions to being closely associated with the major ancient city of Uruk in southern Iraq, one of the world's first cities, which featured a large-scale monumental precinct in the later 4th millennium BCE and yielded thousands of clay tablets containing the earliest written texts. ...

However, the eventual abandonment of the final institutional building at Shakhi Kora, without any signs of it being violently destroyed or seemingly facing environmental pressures, points to a deliberate choice by the local community to move away from this centralized system of authority and resource distribution. ..."

From the abstract:

"During the fourth millennium BC, public institutions developed at several large settlements across greater Mesopotamia. These are widely acknowledged as the first cities and states, yet surprisingly little is known about their emergence, functioning and demise. Here, the authors present new evidence of public institutions at the site of Shakhi Kora in the lower Sirwan/upper Diyala river valley of north-east Iraq. A sequence of four Late Chalcolithic institutional households precedes population dispersal and the apparent regional rejection of centralised social forms of organisation that were not then revisited for almost 1500 years."

Excavations uncover evidence for the emergence and rejection of the earliest state institutions in Iraq

There and back again: local institutions, an Uruk expansion and the rejection of centralisation in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala region

Figure 2. Aerial view of the 2023 exposure in Area I at Shakhi Kora

New research links artifacts 6,000-years-old to writing in Mesopotamia and a possible method to decipher it

Amazing stuff!

"Archaeologists have identified the precursors of writing in the designs of ancient seals dating back about 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

Proto-cuneiform is one of the earliest written languages, developed at the end of the fourth millennium BCE in the influential Mesopotamian city of Uruk, located in what is now southern Iraq. The script consists of hundreds of pictographs – image-based symbols or “signs” that often convey meaning by resembling a physical object. ...

This could change now that a team of researchers from the University of Bologna in Italy have uncovered a direct link between specific proto-cuneiform signs and the designs of artifacts called cylinder seals. ..."

"... Starting in the mid-fourth millennium BCE, cylinder seals were used as part of an accounting system to track the production, storage, and transport of various consumer goods, particularly agricultural and textile products.

It is in this context that proto-cuneiform appeared: an archaic form of writing made up of hundreds of pictographic signs, more than half of which remain undeciphered to this day. Like cylinder seals, proto-cuneiform was used for accounting, though its use is primarily documented in southern Iraq. ..."

From the abstract:

"Administrative innovations in South-west Asia during the fourth millennium BC, including the cylinder seals that were rolled on the earliest clay tablets, laid the foundations for proto-cuneiform script, one of the first writing systems. Seals were rich in iconography, but little research has focused on the potential influence of specific motifs on the development of the sign-based proto-cuneiform script. Here, the authors identify symbolic precursors to fundamental proto-cuneiform signs among late pre-literate seal motifs that describe the transportation of vessels and textiles, highlighting the synergy of early systems of clay-based communication."

New research links artifacts 6,000-years-old to writing

The origin of writing in Mesopotamia is tied to designs engraved on ancient cylinder seals (original news release) "Designs on stone cylinders dating back six thousand years correspond to some signs of the proto-cuneiform script that emerged in the city of Uruk, in southern Iraq, around 3350–3000 BCE. This discovery, made by a research team at the University of Bologna, offers a direct connection in the transition from prehistory to history"

Seals and signs: tracing the origins of writing in ancient South-west Asia (open access)

Example of a cylinder seal (left) and its design imprinted onto clay (right)

Diagrams of proto-cuneiform signs and their precursors from pre-literate seal artifacts.

Is Iran’s Khamenei Dead Man Walking? Is Erdoğan? by Michael Rubin

Recommendable! Israel is in a very tough neighborhood! Too many Arabs are still very hostile towards Israel!

I blogged here yesterday about the possibility of Israel using nuclear weapons against Iran. I speculated here recently that Nasrallah was a dead man walking just days before he and other terrorist leaders were obliterated in a bunker.

How far are we already into World War III with Ukraine and the Middle East?

"... Over the decades, the Islamic Republic crossed many red lines that should have triggered assassinations of senior leaders. Had the United States responded militarily to the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, as Admiral James “Ace” Lyons counseled during the Carter administration, Iranian leaders might have reconsidered subsequent acts of terror. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps might have warned its Hezbollah proxies that seizing American hostages in Lebanon, let alone bombing the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and/or the Marine Barracks in Beirut, would force them to pay too high a price. Certainly, bombing the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, and later the Jewish cultural center, crossed a red line. So, too, did attacking or seeking to attack Israel’s embassies in India, Thailand, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. ...

With Iran’s nuclear program already exceeding the uranium enrichment level of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, Israel feels it faces an existential threat. American policymakers may define Iranian nuclear bomb acquisition as 20 kilograms of 90 percent-enriched uranium, but Iranian leaders may not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good when it comes to their desire for genocide against the Israeli people. ...

The regime is already primed for Khamenei’s death ... reports suggest they have evacuated Khamenei to a secure location.

Khamenei is not the only world leader who should be concerned. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made support for Hamas his brand. Hamas leaders openly plot attacks from their Istanbul office. ...

Erdoğan may believe his status as a NATO member protects him, but if he attacked Israel first, directly or by proxy, NATO Article V would not apply—nor is it clear an assassination absent a claim of responsibility would trigger it.

Iraqi leaders also should question whether distance will protect them from Israeli retaliation. Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais Khazali or firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr could soon find themselves in the same crosshairs as their friend Nasrallah. ...

Diplomatically, the time is right for Israel to up its campaign to eliminate terror sponsors. The United States, Europe, and the United Nations will criticize Israel no matter what it does, so Israel might as well act with a bunk buster rather than a fly swatter. ..."

Is Iran’s Khamenei Dead Man Walking? Is Erdoğan? | American Enterprise Institute - AEI

Islamic council of Imams in Iraq denounces Hamas for extremism and holds Iran responsible

Good news! About time!

The article below failed to explain how relevant this Islamic Council of Imams is. The statement was released on X?

"The Najaf Seminary ... also known as the al-Hawza Al-Ilmiyya ..., is the oldest and one of the most important Shia seminaries (hawza) in the world." (Wikipedia)

"The statement, which was released on the Global Imams Council’s X (previously Twitter) social media account on Sunday, September 1, 2024, referred to the actions of Hamas as ‘barbaric,’ stating, “We are deeply saddened and outraged by these heinous murders, which violate all principles of humanity, religious teachings, and international law.” ...

The statement, issued at the Islamic Seminary of Najaf in Iraq, held Hamas alone responsible for “the deaths and suffering of all innocent lives lost since October 7, as their actions have not only brought death and destruction upon the region but have also led to immense suffering for the Palestinian people.”

Moreover, The Global Imams Council confirmed its stance that “the regime in Iran shares equal responsibility for these tragedies, as its continued support and endorsement of Hamas's actions perpetuate violence and instability in the region. ..."

Islamic council of Imams denounces Hamas for extremism - The Jerusalem Post "In a powerful statement, the Global Imams Council has denounced Hamas' hostage executions, challenging extremism from within Islam."

Algorithm achieves very high accuracy to diagnose many different diseases and predict their progression via tongue color

Good news! Coming to your smartphone soon! Say  "aah"!

What is next? Hand reading? 😊

"... Two teaching hospitals in the Middle East supplied 60 tongue images from patients with various health conditions. The artificial intelligence (AI) model was able to match the tongue color with the disease in almost all cases. ...

AI is replicating a 2,000-year-old practice widely used in traditional Chinese medicine—examining the tongue for signs of disease. ...

a smartphone will be used to diagnose disease in this way. ..."

"... The proposed imaging system developed by Iraqi and Australian researchers can diagnose diabetes, stroke, anaemia, asthma, liver and gallbladder conditions, COVID-19, and a range of vascular and gastrointestinal issues. ..."

From the abstract:

"The diagnosis of ... disease is based on the observation of various tongue characteristics, including color, shape, texture, and moisture, which indicate the patient’s health status. Tongue color is one such characteristic that plays a vital function in identifying diseases and the levels of progression of the ailment. With the development of computer vision systems, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, there has been important progress in acquiring, processing, and classifying tongue images. This study proposes a new imaging system to analyze and extract tongue color features at different color saturations and under different light conditions from five color space models (RGB, YcbCr, HSV, LAB, and YIQ). The proposed imaging system trained 5260 images classified with seven classes (red, yellow, green, blue, gray, white, and pink) using six machine learning algorithms, namely, the naïve Bayes (NB), support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbors (KNN), decision trees (DTs), random forest (RF), and Extreme Gradient Boost (XGBoost) methods, to predict tongue color under any lighting conditions. The obtained results from the machine learning algorithms illustrated that XGBoost had the highest accuracy at 98.71%, while the NB algorithm had the lowest accuracy, with 91.43%. Based on these obtained results, the XGBoost algorithm was chosen as the classifier of the proposed imaging system and linked with a graphical user interface to predict tongue color and its related diseases in real time. Thus, this proposed imaging system opens the door for expanded tongue diagnosis within future point-of-care health systems."

Algorithm achieves 98% accuracy in disease prediction via tongue color

Say ‘aah’ and get a diagnosis on the spot: is this the future of health? (original news release) "A computer algorithm has achieved a 98% accuracy in predicting different diseases by analysing the colour of the human tongue."

Tongue Disease Prediction Based on Machine Learning Algorithms (open access)

Figure 2. Block diagram of the tongue color analysis system.