Word: druzes
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...being the world's only airline to be run by an honest-to-Allah sheik. The man responsible for the line's rapid and unsubsidized climb is Najib Salim Alamuddin, 55, who inherited the title of sheik from a family long prominent in Lebanon's Druze sect, an Islamic offshoot founded in the llth century. Educated at the American University of Beirut, suave, sophisticated Sheik Alamuddin was running his own telecommunications company when he was asked to take over Middle East Airlines...
Jordan's reprisal was to kill three Israeli Druze watchmen at an oil camp in the eastern Negev desert, not far from where Jordanians had ambushed a busload of Israelis last month. Next night a powerful Israeli army force-some 1,000 troops according to Jordan sources-slammed twelve miles across the desert frontier into Jordan and, supported by artillery and bombing planes, wiped out a police post at Gharandal, almost midway between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. Jordan reported ten police, National Guardsmen and civilians killed, eight wounded...
...everything seemed to be going wrong. For four years he had tried to unify and stabilize Syria, but the country was riddled with disaffection and on the edge of revolt. At that very hour, armed units patrolled the streets of Horns, Aleppo, and Damascus itself, and soldiers battled sullen Druze tribesmen in the remote mountainous province of Jebel Druze...
...taken a calculated gamble: if Syria could ride out the crisis without returning to police-state methods, democracy would be on its way. While Shishekly lingered and hoped, the opposition prepared. In June the ousted politicos - extreme right-wing ers, moderates, left Socialists, and the old Druze chieftain, Sultan Pasha el Atrash - met secretly, organized the Popular Bloc, and agreed to bury their hatchet -in Shishekly's back. Still Shishekly did nothing. Three weeks ago, emboldened, the Popular Bloc plotted the final act, the overthrow of Shishekly. The climax was set for the night of Wednesday...
Quickly, troops sealed off the Sultan's house, placed the Sultan under house arrest, then battled off enraged Druze tribesmen as tanks moved into the area. Police jailed the twelve top leaders of the Popular Bloc and the heads of the Bar Association. Said Shishekly over Radio Damascus: "These leaders exploited the liberal principles proclaimed by my new regime . . . Naive citizens in some districts went to the extreme of actually clashing with the armed security forces. This necessitated quick measures...