Word: hussein
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...tension, the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad organization, whose hostages are believed to include Terry Anderson, the chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, and Thomas Sutherland, a dean at the American University of Beirut, defiantly warned that its captives would be killed if the U.S. attacked. Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Hizballah, the pro-Iranian Party of God movement, personally challenged the Sixth Fleet. "What can they do, destroy Beirut?" he demanded. "They cannot do that. The Americans are welcome . . . If I am on their hit list, then that is an honor...
Like almost everything else in Iran today, the reasons behind Seib's arrest remain a puzzle. The incident could have resulted from the continuing power struggle between the ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, the designated successor to the aging, ailing Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of the Iranian parliament. The journalists had been invited by Rafsanjani supporters, and Montazeri's men may have been trying to embarrass them by arresting the reporter...
...dealings with Iran have been portrayed as an overture to moderates led by Speaker of the Parliament Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Actually, CIA sources say, Ghorbanifar had persuaded the entire political leadership of the Islamic republic, including Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi and Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, designated successor to Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, to assent to secret contacts with the U.S. Two reasons: the Iranians feared the Soviet threat more than any from the West; and they hoped that American arms would soon follow improved relations with...
...blood- drenched standstill. Some 60,000 Iranian troops remained dug in six miles east of the heavily fortified earthenwork defenses, known as the "wall of steel," that surround the city. The Iranian attackers were under constant bombardment by the superior air- and fire-power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces. The wounded were said to number 15,000 for the Iraqis and 45,000 for the Iranians. Since Iran began its latest series of attacks on Christmas Eve, an estimated total of 30,000 combatants have perished...
...immediate objective of the current campaign, for which the Iranians have amassed at least 650,000 troops, is the port city of Basra (pop. 1 million). Iranian strategists hope that the fall of the city would lead to the collapse of Saddam Hussein and the creation of an Iranian-style Islamic republic. Basra, like Iran itself, is inhabited mainly by Shi'ite Muslims...