Word: commandos
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Khalil al-Wazir was sitting in the study of his comfortable home outside Tunis reading field reports when the muffled fire of submachine guns mounted with silencers disturbed the early morning quiet. Instinctively, al-Wazir drew his pistol. But the gesture was futile. The intruders, a commando unit of seven men and one woman, had already killed al-Wazir's Tunisian driver and two Palestinian bodyguards. Then, with the brutal efficiency of a well-trained hit squad, they turned their fire on al-Wazir and riddled his body with a prolonged spray of bullets. Al-Wazir, 52, Yasser Arafat...
...order to replace one Communist leader, Hafizullah Amin, with Babrak Karmal, another Communist but one more amenable to Soviet thinking on many issues. Soviet troops quickly became enmeshed in fighting with the budding resistance movement. Moscow has tried to defeat the rebels with everything from carpet bombing to lightning commando attacks, all to no avail. Soviet offers of bribes, cease-fires and amnesties have also failed to quell the mujahedin...
Just after Gorbachev took office in 1985, the Soviets intensified the war and appeared to gain ground. Deadly Mi-24 helicopters and elite Spetsnaz commando units regularly ambushed rebel units and supply caravans with devastating effect: mujahedin casualties rose to all-time highs. Then the Reagan Administration began shipping Stingers, those compact but lethal antiaircraft missiles, to the guerrillas. Soon the air war turned around. By one conservative estimate, the Soviets last year alone lost 270 aircraft worth about $2.2 billion...
...Hampshire, he faces tough tests ahead. Robertson could prove to be more of a spoiler in the South than he was in Iowa. Robertson credited his dazzling showing in Iowa to God and his "invisible army" of supporters. Actually, Robertson supporters functioned less like an army than a skilled commando brigade. They understood the caucus system well and adroitly concentrated on group voting. Robertson organizers even rented buses to deliver their supporters to meetings en masse. Throughout the South and in such states as Michigan and Minnesota, Robertson has built up similarly efficient organizations full of fervent campaigners...
...National United Front for the Liberation of Viet Nam, they stealthily crossed the jungles of Laos last July, making for the Central Highlands of their homeland. There they hoped to link up with mountain tribesmen opposed to the Communist government and begin a guerrilla war to overthrow Hanoi. Each commando carried an automatic rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition. Beyond that, the battalion had only some rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns. In August, a day's march from their goal, they were attacked by 2,000 soldiers of the Vietnamese army. More than 100 of the intruders were...