Summary: About 2,000 demonstrators attacked government offices in the southern Iraqi province of
Wasit, ripping up pavement stones to hurl at a regional council headquarters in a protest over shoddy public services, leaving dozens of people injured. In the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, hundreds of demonstrators also thronged the streets demanding better services. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 16, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: Protesters have taken to the streets in different corners of the Middle East: Iran’s beleaguered opposition stormed back to central Tehran and came under a tear gas attack by police, while demonstrators faced rubber bullets and birdshot to demand more freedoms in the relative wealth of Bahrain and protesters pressed for the ouster of the ruler in poverty-drained Yemen. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 14, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Vice President Joe Biden belittled Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s commitment to fighting terrorism as either “misinformed” or “misinforming,” saying the Iraq war wasn’t worth it because of “the horrible price” paid.

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Summary: U.S. officials are concerned that Islamic extremists may try to exploit Egypt’s upheaval but are not yet convinced that the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most influential Islamist opposition group, is necessarily a threat. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 13, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that bombs and booby traps slowed the advance of thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers moving through the Taliban-controlled town of Marjah — NATO’s most ambitious effort yet to break the militants’ grip over their southern Afghanistan heartland. NATO said two of its troops were killed in the first day of the operation — one American and one Briton. Afghan authorities said at least 20 insurgents were killed.

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Summary: As Egyptians take to the streets to call for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, some analysts caution about the prospect of protests in Egypt spreading across the Arab world, with popular revolt erupting in Middle Eastern countries such as Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and even Saudi Arabia, with grave implications for regional stability and U.S. national security interests. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 31, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Special Forces working with Afghan commandos clashed with Afghan troops manning a snow-covered outpost and called in an airstrike, killing four Afghan soldiers in a case of mistaken identity. Separately, an Afghan interpreter killed two U.S. service members at a combat outpost and U.S. soldiers shot and killed an Afghan imam when his car approached a convoy.

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