Word: interiorities
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...militia and Sadrist political movement have been substantially weakened through military crackdowns on their strongholds in Sadr City and the southern cities of Amara and Basra over the past four months. "We don't think they will try to fight again, because they are too weak now," says an Interior Ministry official. "If they start, it will be their end." Says Ali Saadi, a medical professor in the Hay al-Banook district, where the Shi'ite militia has been popular and which lies adjacent to Sadr City: "The Mahdi Army was hit hard [by the military operation]. They are very...
...Baghdad in the past few months has warned, "We'll be back." But when? And if they're only resting, then does that mean the government has less control over the restless opposition hotbed than it has claimed? "The government is in full control of Sadr City," says the Interior Ministry official, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the press. "There are still a few [Mahdi Army fighters], but they have no influence and they cannot act because we are fully in control of them...
...chanting, "No to America! No to the agreement! No to the occupation!" Saadi, the MP, says the Mahdi Army will never turn violent in Sadr City again. But he says it could carry out more demonstrations "if the government pushes the people and doesn't fulfill its promises." The Interior Ministry official is more wary, saying, "People want services like electricity, water and medical care ... They are fed up with the military in the streets. And don't forget that Sadr City is a very big district and [the residents] are almost under siege. They have very few ways...
...Pakistan's security and intelligence apparatus, which has a reputation for acting on its own; and he is seen as ceding many prerogatives of the Prime Minister's office to Zardari and to Rehman Malik, Bhutto's security chief who is now, in effect, Pakistan's Minister of the Interior. Says political analyst Talat Masood: "The present government is not in a position to tackle the serious concerns facing this country. It has hardly started to clarify its own position on extremism and terrorism...
...Iraqi police report identified the three "charred" bodies inside the car as Hafedh Aboud Mehdi, Youssef and Ahmed. If the trio had in fact been armed, says an Interior Ministry official, it would have been the first time ever that an Iraqi had gotten a weapon through all the checkpoints to try to carry out an attack on that stretch of road. The contention over what happened - with the Iraqi accounts at odds with the initial U.S. report - had overtones of other controversial episodes, including the 2005 events in Haditha...