Word: laskar
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...neighbors. The ramifications might be felt thousands of miles away in London and New York City. For the villagers' agony was not the result of a random explosion of religious resentment and hatred but part of a carefully calculated campaign conducted by trained, disciplined troops?the fighters of Laskar Jihad, Indonesia's most feared militant Islamic group...
...face of Indonesia's traditionally varied and tolerant Sunni Islam. While most groups concentrate on fielding noisy demonstrators and grabbing headlines, a few have taken advantage of the new freedoms?and support from high-level officials?to raise well-armed private armies. By far the most successful is Laskar Jihad, which spouts the militant Wahhabi creed followed by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban and claims a force of 10,000 fighters, dedicated to defending its beliefs throughout the island nation...
...real fighters, the thousand or more troops from the Laskar Jihad, are nowhere in sight, leaving refugees like Rawana Tangalu homeless and bewildered. The 60-year-old farmer fled into the jungle with her daughter and son-in-law and their three-year-old boy and two-month-old girl when the attack came at 10 a.m. on Nov. 28. "I could hear the bombs and nonstop shooting from the village for two days and two nights," Tangalu says. "My daughter had to cover my grandchild's mouth to stop her from crying." The local military commander sent dozens...
...sparked a spate of killings by vigilante groups. Since then, despite the frantic efforts of community leaders, the conflict has been characterized by periods of uneasy quiet, punctuated by explosions of mob violence. Hundreds, mostly Muslim, died in an outbreak in May 2000. But the arrival of the 750 Laskar fighters on July 19 this year decisively tilted the balance on the island and introduced a professional military element in their deliberate campaign to sweep Christians, who make up 60% of the region's population, out of an arc of villages surrounding the disputed town of Poso, where the fighting...
...Islamist groups, Islamic Defenders' Front and Laskar Jihad, are suspected of receiving al-Qaeda funds. Since Sept. 11, they have threatened Americans...