Word: ites
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...killing of U.S. Navy Diver Robert Stethem, 23, who was savagely beaten, shot in the head and then thrown onto the tarmac at Beirut airport. The Reagan Administration sought Hammadi's extradition after his arrest last year at Frankfurt airport, but Bonn refused, partly because of pressure by Shi'ite militants holding two West German hostages in Beirut...
...narrow alleyways of Beirut's southern suburbs. Figures in camouflage fatigues crouched behind the crumbling concrete-block walls of abandoned apartment buildings, clutching Kalashnikovs and scanning the area ahead for signs of movement before advancing. Red headbands identified the men as members of Hizballah, the disciplined and fanatical Shi'ite militia supported by Iran. After three weeks of combat, Hizballah's militants, led by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, had seized control of virtually the entire area of Beirut's southern suburbs from the Syrian-backed Amal militia. Nearly 300 people were killed in the clashes and some 1,000 wounded...
Some diplomats suggested that the Syrians' expanded security role in Beirut could improve prospects for the release of foreign hostages, including nine Americans, believed held by pro-Iranian militants in the Shi'ite neighborhoods. In his desire to regain respectability following Western charges of Syrian involvement in international terrorism, Assad would like to reap credit for seeing the hostages freed. A Western diplomat in Damascus described the security plan for the suburbs as "a move in the right direction...
Squadrons of Syrian tanks rolled into position around the southern suburbs of Beirut last week, their cannon muzzles pointed menacingly at the 16-sq.-mi. enclave. Two Syrian armored brigades, supported by two battalions of President Hafez Assad's elite Special Forces commandos, crouched behind barricades ringing the Shi'ite Muslim slums. Since May 6, fierce battles between rival militias had raged through the streets and alleys, causing many of the area's 250,000 residents to flee. In bloody hand-to-hand combat, the fanatical, pro- Iranian Hizballah had driven the more moderate, Syrian-backed Amal...
Syria's reluctance to storm the Shi'ite quarter reflected Assad's hope of reaching a political compromise. Despite the growing rivalry with Iran over Lebanon, Syria has no desire to rupture relations. The two countries, in fact, are strategic allies in Iran's 7 1/2-year-old war against their mutual enemy, Iraq. Moreover, the Syrian President knows that his troops could suffer high casualties in a clash with the entrenched Islamic zealots...