Word: ite
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...soon became apparent, however, that the battle was as much for the hearts and minds of the army as for territory. Heeding a call from Berri, Shi'ite members of the Lebanese Army deserted in droves. Many of them joined the Amal militia, surrendering equipment like armored personnel carriers. A few army outposts fell without a shot being fired, while others were taken only after ferocious battles. In many places, local ceasefires were arranged; army soldiers were allowed to keep their weapons if they promised not to use them...
Last week when Muslim guerrillas of the Shi'ite Amal militia led the attack on Lebanese Army units controlling West Beirut, it signaled the emergence of yet another faction from the wings onto center stage. With that stunning victory, the once obscure Amal, under Leader Nabih Berri, was suddenly poised to play a decisive role in Lebanon's future...
That began to change in the 1975 civil war. As other power-hungry factions oiled their guns, the Lebanese Shi'ite leader Imam Moussa Sadr formed the Amal (meaning hope in Arabic), originally intending it to be a political organization exerting pressure to better the lot of Shi'ites living in poverty in Beirut's southern suburbs. But in a country constantly at war, it quickly became clear that social and political change would be achieved only through military force. The Amal developed a military wing, fortifying the Shi'ite neighborhoods with sandbags and training youths...
...came under attack from the Israelis in the summer of 1982, however, the Amal supported the Palestinians. That loyalty was rewarded when the P.L.O. finally evacuated the city and the Amal obtained substantial quantities of P.L.O. arms. Thus strengthened, the Amal set up what was effectively a Shi'ite state within a state in the southern suburbs...
That moderation, however, is increasingly endangered by a wave of religious fundamentalism washing through the Shi'ite community. In June of 1982, an aide to Berri, Hussein Musawi, broke away to form a radical splinter group, the Islamic Amal. Musawi has since forged close links with Islamic Jihad, the Muslim extremist group that claimed responsibility for the attacks on the U.S. and French compounds last October, and the murder of Beirut's American University President Malcolm Kerr last month. Within the mainstream Amal, young Shi'ites have attacked occupying Israeli troops in southern Lebanon with the encouragement...