Word: hizballah
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...Hizballah security teams - identifiable by their combat boots, black fatigues and beards - that gathered Friday morning in the suburbs of Beirut didn't need much of a pep talk to pump themselves up for their massive demonstration in Lebanon's capital. "If the leadership says march, we march; if they say die, we die," said one, who called himself Bakkir. Still, if they needed any reminder of why they were hitting the streets to bring down Lebanon's government, Bakkir and his buddies could look around at the bomb craters and crushed concrete from this summer's war with Israel...
...podium in Riadh Al Solh Square, and the martial anthems played on a gigantic stereo system sounded the same theme, accusing the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of collaborating with Israel and the United States in their plans to redraw the map of the Middle East and bomb Hizballah into submission. Put simply by a Shi'ite schoolgirl from Baalbek: "This is an Israeli government and we want to make it fall...
...mention Israel. After all, Siniora did all he could to press his friends in Washington to demand an immediate cease-fire, but his pleas went unheeded. In what was perceived as a green light for Israel to continue its campaign in pursuit of a military victory over Hizballah, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice memorably told the Lebanese they were suffering "the birth pangs of a New Middle East...
...Police officials estimated the crowd at about 800,000 people, while Hizballah claimed a cool million - about one quarter of the country's population. Either way, the event bore Hizballah's signature organizational flair: its security personnel, as many as 10,000 of them, lined up at every major intersection to prevent supporters from becoming too enthusiastic, or infiltrators from stirring up trouble. Marchers came from all over the country, many of them determined to stay in Beirut until the government collapses. Hizballah politicians promised an open-ended and escalating series of civil actions, from strikes at key national institutions...
...line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proceeded to promote Iran's nuclear ambitions and call for Israel to be wiped off the map. Despite Bush's tough talk against Iran, the Iraq war has dramatically expanded Iran's influence in the country. To make matters worse, Iran's Lebanese ally, Hizballah, withstood Israel's month-long onslaught last summer and is poised to topple the U.S.-backed Lebanese government...