Word: itely
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...entered a perilous and unprecedented constitutional vacuum following the departure midnight Friday of the pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, with no elected successor. The two rival factions - the Western-backed March 14 block, which holds a thin parliamentary majority, and the pro-Syrian opposition, spearheaded by the militant Shi'ite Hizballah - are locked in a tense standoff, both waiting for the other to make the first move...
...Lebanon's powerful Shi'ite political party Hizballah, which possesses its own military, is using its influence to press for a new President friendly to its agenda and the interests of its Syrian and Iranian backers. Meanwhile, pro-Western, anti-Syrian politicians threaten to elect a President from their own camp if the opposition rejects a consensus candidate. Hizballah and its allies say they will not recognize an anti-Syrian President and hint they will form a rival government instead...
...been quiet until dawn on Sunday. As the sun began to rise, Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Sauer's soldiers in eastern Baghdad, based in the shadow of the Shi'ite milita stronghold of Sadr City, were hit with a series of rockets. The attacks were well-coordinated and sophisticated; they were also the first heavy shelling of U.S. bases in the area in several months...
...Americans, Sauer says, could have responded with house-to-house searches and other heavy-handed tactics. But, he says, "That would be the exact example of what [the attackers] want me to do so they can turn the population back in their favor." Now, U.S. troops, not local Shi'ite militiamen, have the initiative and set the tone in this area of Baghdad. Sauer and his men have set to work pursuing leads to track down the militants behind the attack - a process more focused on analyzing evidence and gathering intelligence than on overt displays of force...
...civilians were killed in October - still a high number, but down well over 50% from late last year. Much of that decline reflects the declining influence of the Sunni terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, and a reduction in sectarian violence. But the tactics of choice for Shi'ite militia groups - rocket and mortar attacks and sophisticated roadside bombings - have also waned...