Word: ite
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...Sept. 30, 1988, shortly after Friday noon prayers, four young Shi'ite men were beheaded by royal decree in the Saudi town of Dammam. They had been convicted of blowing up fuel storage tanks at the Sadaf petrochemical facility in Jubail. The capture of the Shi'ites ended a six-month investigation that imposed virtual martial law around the coastal towns of Tarut and Qatif -- the strategic, oil-rich area of Saudi Arabia's Eastern province, where most of the country's 300,000 Shi'ites live...
...spoils of war that fell into Iraq's hands when its troops stormed Kuwait were 17 prisoners who had been serving sentences ranging from five years to life in a Kuwait City jail. The convicts turned out to be a valuable prize. The 17, all linked to the Shi'ite terrorist group Islamic Jihad, were convicted for killing six people in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies and other targets in the Kuwaiti capital. Islamic Jihad, which has ties to Iran, has repeatedly demanded freedom for the 17 prisoners as one of the conditions for the release...
...called pragmatists around Bush convinced him that a U.S. drive to oust Saddam and weaken his military might bring a host of nasty repercussions, including seething Arab resentment against the U.S. "imperialists" and their ruling Arab cohorts, a radical Shi'ite takeover of Iraq and the weakening of Iraq as a military counter to Iran and Syria. The pragmatists added a kicker -- probably wishful: just forcing Saddam out of Kuwait would humiliate him so badly that it might lead to his overthrow. Said Bush last week: "It wouldn't disappoint me if the Iraqis got up and said, 'Look, this...
...Arab gulf leaders, Fahd is now most vulnerable to charges he is a Western puppet. Shi'ite Muslims have been disputing Saudi custodianship of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina as illegitimate. The presence of foreign forces risks sowing the seeds of long-term agitation to unseat the house of Saud, though the presence of a pan-Arab force will take much of the onus off Fahd...
...Ayatullah Khomeini, then, under pressure from the Shah, expelled him. Not only did Saddam want disputed territory, but he was also provoked when Khomeini began calling for the overthrow of Saddam's "blasphemous" regime. He is a Sunni Muslim, though most Iraqis belong to the rival Shi'ite branch, as did Khomeini. Saddam responded by invading, confident that his powerful, Soviet-equipped army could easily smash the Ayatullah's ragtag militia, but the Iranians fought back. When the going got especially rough, Saddam turned to poison gas, a horror weapon outlawed after World...