Word: ite
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Desperate Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders begged the U.S. military for help. But Colin Powell, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, wanted U.S. troops safely home, not mired in what might become a messy civil war. Secretary of State James Baker feared the "Lebanonization of Iraq." His nightmare: Iraqi Shi'ites, aligned with Iran's fundamentalist Shi'ites, would carve out the south; Sunni Muslims would hold the center; and Kurds, who long craved an independent state, would capture the north, upsetting Turkey, which feared revolt from its own Kurdish population...
...Soldiers of 2nd Battalion," ordered Lieut. Colonel Chris Hughes. "Smile!" With that, infantrymen of the 101st Airborne Division, armed to the teeth, began flashing their choppers at a crowd that had grown restless as the soldiers approached the mosque at the Tomb of Ali in Najaf, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites. The tactic helped win over a crowd that had more questions than answers. Were the soldiers going to storm the mosque, as some agitators were shouting? Were they liberators? Or conquerors? Were they really going to kill Saddam Hussein this time...
...hours later about 30 Shi'ite fighters arrived. They were wearing new military vests and carrying Russian-made weapons. Not an army, said a special-forces soldier, though he added, "It's a start. Tomorrow we will have 10 times this number." The Shi'ite leader, who did not wish to be identified, was beaming as he approached the U.S. troops. He told the soldiers how he hated Saddam and how all the people in Najaf hated Saddam. He went to great pains to make clear that his was a self-financed outfit, independent of the U.S. army. Asked...
...ite leader accepted the honor of detonating the explosives ringing Saddam's statue. With a thunderous blast Najaf's most visible symbol of Saddam's regime toppled in a heap of twisted metal. People ran from the side streets cheering and climbing over the wreckage, enjoying the giddiness of the moment. One Iraqi approached Brigadier General Benjamin Freakley, assistant commander of the 101st Airborne. "Kill Saddam," he said, and spat on the ground. Then he added, "Now we can have satellite...
...sharks are an estimated 3,000 Iraqi soldiers in Diwaniyah, a city of 300,000 people 75 miles southeast of Baghdad, where the 1991 southern Shi'ite rebellion against Saddam Hussein first started...