Word: ak
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Before the Americans take Baghdad, they'll have to roll over the dead body of Muntaha Keithem. The plump, brassy 40-year-old war widow has sent her family's AK-47 assault rifle to be repaired, and fully intends to use it to defend Iraq's capital. As she contemplates deadly gun battles in the streets around her brother's modest two-story home in the middle-class suburb of Bayaa, her leonine eyes blaze fiercely and she throws back her head to thrust out a defiant jaw. "The Americans should be warned that Iraqi women know...
...Whether or not Muntaha and her AK-47 can repulse G.I.s from Baghdad, she represents a serious problem for American military planners. The resistance they will face may not come only from Saddam's army or his Republican Guard. Millions of ordinary Iraqis, like Muntaha, have benefited from Saddam's rule and have a personal stake in his survival. And they won't all have to make the ultimate sacrifice for their leader in order to complicate matters for the Americans...
...contrast to Muntaha, Zaki is visibly uncomfortable discussing politics, and prefers to quote scripture rather than Saddam. But if the family were required to put up resistance to an invading force, he will have the first right to the AK-47. Not only is he the patriarch, he's also a war veteran: as a medic during the Gulf War, Zaki saw active duty in Kuwait. "I know how to use a gun very well," he says, without a trace of bravado. "You won't find an Iraqi man of my age who hasn't experienced...
...Keen to show that the family women, too, know their way around an assault rifle, Muntaha arranges a demonstration at her office. Pulling some strings at the local Ba'ath Party office, she has two AK-47s brought to her office. She and her daughter, Sabreen, dress for the occasion in olive green military uniforms and black veils pulled across their faces to form masks. They then run through some basic drills they learned at rifle training two years ago. This includes dismantling and reassembling the rifles...
...eastern border, Turkey gave in to U.S. demands - and inducements - to open up its bases for use by American troops in an invasion of Iraq. Parliament approved a key measure to upgrade ports and bases. Most of the yes votes came from the ruling Justice and Development party (AK), which until now has been an outspoken opponent of the war. "When there is no chance left to block a war, it means participating in re-establishing peace as soon as possible," AK leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan told deputies. To sweeten the pot, the U.S. promised up to $15 billion...