Word: jumblatt
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...chest height, baseball caps shading their grim faces as they scan the surrounding area for potential trouble. Jaafar was killed two days earlier - wounded by a sniper and executed with a bullet in the head, according to residents -during heavy clashes between Hizballah and the Druze followers of Walid Jumblatt, an arch-critic of the Shi'ite party, in the hills of the Aley district above Beirut. Because of the tensions, there must be no shooting in the air during the funeral procession, a Hizballah organizer instructs the mourners. "Save your bullets for the Israelis and the traitors," he adds...
There are no longer any Hizballah fighters surrounding the grand red sandstone Beirut town house belonging to Walid Jumblatt, a member of Parliament and one of the leaders of Lebanon's governing coalition. Still, Jumblatt, a top American ally, is under virtual house arrest. After the lightning speed with which opposition Hizballah fighters defeated government supporters in a six-hour battle on Thursday - only to vanish a few hours later - it became clear that it is pointless to resist the Iranian and Syrian-backed militia, which could return at any time. "I am a hostage now in my home...
...hereditary chieftain of Lebanon's Druze Muslim minority, Jumblatt earned the nickname 'the weather vane" for being able to steer his followers through the ever changing winds of Middle East politics. A former princely vassal to the Syrian Assad regime, he switched his loyalties to the Bush administration after the invasion of Iraq, when it briefly seemed like American military power would transform the region. Yet, despite the fact that Hizballah is perhaps the world's most fearsome guerrilla organization, somehow Jumblatt misjudged the ease with which Hizballah could pull Lebanon back into the Syrian and Iranian orbit. "I must...
...whose soldiers are Shi'a Muslims and support the opposition, would split apart if pressed into service against Hizballah. The American-trained security services value their lives more than the $300 million in U.S. aid they've received and haven't fired a shot at Hizballah. And like Jumblatt, government ministers are marked men. Meanwhile, the American warship USS Cole is heading to the Mediterranean, but if the U.S. staged any military action against Hizballah, the group could take American hostages in Lebanon just as they did in the 1980s...
...Sitting in his garden terrace in Beirut, with just a few family members and loyal retainers, Jumblatt is quickly coming to grips with the new political landscape. "The U.S. has failed in Lebanon and they have to admit it," he said. "We have to wait and see the new rules which Hizbollah, Syria and Iran will set. They can do what they want...