Word: guerrillas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Finding himself one moment a rebel, the next the de facto ruler of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi allowed himself a wry comment during a press conference in London last week. Asked about the banner hanging behind him, a red flag emblazoned with the image of an AK-47, the modern guerrilla's weapon of choice, the leader of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front smiled. "I suppose we won't use the Kalashnikov anymore," he said, giving voice to widespread hopes that the decades of civil war in Ethiopia were finally over...
...made the allies nervous. "Just one shot by an Iraqi soldier could trigger a battle," worried another London official. At the same time, the presence of the armed men was dissuading the fearful Kurds from moving into the new sanctuaries. "Our problem is not tents," said Rajab, a Kurdish guerrilla commander. "Our problem is security...
What's more, the Kurds, like Saddam, are in the market for time, a breathing space in which to rebuild their guerrilla forces so that when the next fight with Baghdad comes, they will be ready. Concerns that the delegation was hopelessly naive were somewhat mitigated by the participation of Nashirwan Barzani, who represented his uncle Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish guerrilla chief whose Democratic Party of Kurdistan is more militant than Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan...
...forces apart. But it is by no means certain that they can succeed, especially if allied soldiers decide to seize Iraqi military airstrips to land construction materials and relief supplies for the camps. The Operation Haven troops could also get caught in cross fire between Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas using the camps as bases from which to stage raids. The allies say they will not allow guerrilla activity in the tent cities, but are not at all clear about how they intend to stop...
Opposition to the Iraqis was extremely well organized in part because it was built around clandestine groups that existed before the occupation. In addition to Shi'ite Muslims opposed to the Emir, these include members of Arafat's Fatah guerrilla organization and Hamas, a more extreme Palestinian group that has been a key participant in the intifadeh in the Israeli-occupied areas. In addition, Ahmed Jibril's pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command has detonated car bombs at Iraqi targets in Kuwait City...