Word: amal
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...Beirut, Shi'ite Amal militiamen took 37 American male passengers off the TWA jet hijacked two weeks ago and hid them somewhere in the chaos of the western sector of the city. The triumphant captors brought five of their victims before TV cameras for a news conference, in which the prisoners pleaded that the U.S. not try to rescue them or take any military reprisal lest all the hostages die. At week's end the Shi'ite Party of God staged a rally around the captured jet; 1,000 demonstrators cheered the hijackers and chanted "Death to America...
...original two hijackers were tough-minded men who at times had dealt savagely -- and in one case murderously -- with their charges. But the ten to twelve gunmen who came aboard during the plane's second stopover in Beirut were of a different stripe: they were militiamen of the mainstream Amal organization, far friendlier than the original terrorists, and they seemed to influence the very character of the hijacking. When Flight 847 landed at Beirut on Sunday for the third time in as many days, the remaining passengers were taken to unknown locations, probably in the poor Shi'ite neighborhoods around...
...same time, the hijackers demanded to see Amal Leader Nabih Berri, representatives of the United Nations and the Red Cross, and the ambassadors of France, Spain and Britain; they later agreed that such a meeting could be held at Berri's residence, where he would act as their representative. The terrorists' repeated emphasis on seeing officials of Amal, the mainstream Shi'ite organization, suggested not only that they were seeking a negotiated settlement but that their motivation may have been essentially political rather than ideological...
...sided with the Palestinians in the current struggle, and view with apprehension the Shi'ites' lust for a greater share of political power. The Shi'ites and the Druze were allies until about a month ago, but last week they were shooting at each other after a group of Amal militiamen tried to stop a car loaded with Druze. Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt agreed to a cease-fire but later, when asked how long it would last, replied, "Only God and Syria know." Given all these circumstances, Syrian President Hafez Assad was content to let the rival factions in Lebanon...
...Army. Two weeks ago, the S.L.A. had seized 25 Finnish soldiers of the U.N. force, released three of them and taken the others to the Christian town of Marjayoun. It refused to let them go until eleven of its own members had been handed over by the Shi'ite Amal militia. The S.L.A. accused the U.N. force, which does not recognize the S.L.A. as an independent militia and customarily disarms its members whenever they try to pass through U.N. lines, of having captured the eleven S.L.A. members and turned them over to Amal. The Shi'ite militia, in turn, claimed...