Three Arab kingdoms in the Persian Gulf region have been confronted with the destabilizing fallout of growing political tensions in recent days. On Monday, a series of bombings in Bahrain’s capital of Manama killed two men, an ominous sign that the struggle between the island nation’s predominantly Sunni ruling elite …
Last weekend, Bahrain held special elections to fill 18 parliamentary seats left vacant after members of the Islamist al Wefaq party resigned last February amid anti-government protests. Despite the government’s attempts to fill the seats without incident, Bahrain’s opposition seized the opportunity to revive anti-government protests, which the government had …
Despite insurgent threats to murder Iraqis who dared to vote in the parliamentary elections, yesterday’s Iraqi elections went as well as could be expected. There were dozens of bombs that exploded in Baghdad and other cities, killing at least 36 people, but many Iraqis shrugged off the violence and risked …
