Word: ited
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Such views have little traction in the Shi'ite villages of the eastern Bekaa Valley where Toufeili lives. Local residents openly mock the stubborn cleric, accusing him of being on the payroll of Hizballah's opponents. Small wonder, then, that he rarely leaves his home, and that his bodyguard rarely leaves his side...
...major reason that the sectarian violence levels are down may be that the Shi'ite Mahdi Army, perpetrator of much of the worst sectarian killing, has decided for tactical reasons to lie low. Its leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, and his allies in Iraq's government appear to have decided that they're better off waiting out the U.S. surge rather than trying to fight it head-on. After all, they dominate several of Iraq's key ministries and many of its military and police units. If and when the Americans leave, they hope to be well positioned to pursue their...
...Mahdi Army is also able to use its political clout to insulate it from the worst effects of the troop surge, by pressuring the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to limit how and where American troops operate in Shi'ite areas. When they feel the heat from the Americans, they are able to make life difficult for al-Maliki by precipitating political crises - as they did this week by announcing the withdrawal of their ministers from his cabinet in protest at his failure to demand a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq...
...neither a stake in the government nor a single, top-down leadership structure. And, while death squad violence against Sunnis has declined, there is no sign of a corresponding rise in Sunni participation in the political process. The national government and its ministries are still dominated by Shi'ites, who vastly outnumber Sunnis in the Iraqi security forces. For many Sunnis, the Baghdad security plan simply raises the specter of Shi'ite harassment, oppression and murder...
...Baathists, local Islamists and foreign jihadists - and their allies have encouraged the political isolation of their community from the political process, and they reap its benefits. Operating on the assumption proven in Sunni minds by events of recent years that they will be oppressed, or worse, in a Shi'ite-dominated Iraq, many Sunnis are willing to tacitly or actively support violence by Sunni militants and terrorists. So, the militants have the popular support that is the lifeblood of any insurgency because it allows fighters to camouflage themselves in the civilian population. Political sentiment in the Sunni communities leaves...