Word: militia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...assault rifles and trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in demolition and information gathering, they appear to be a well-conditioned, highly motivated team. Some members of the unit have crossed the border before us with mortars to reinforce other F.D.N. patrols battling advancing columns of Sandinista militia. Our patrol's standing orders are to move forward as far as 50 miles into Nicaragua, setting ambushes, campaigning among the peasantry and sabotaging electrical lines and bridges. "Within the past 18 months we have pushed the Sandinistas out of here," says the patrol's leader, Comandante Alfa, waving...
...dawn broke on the first day of the month, long lines of blue-uniformed militia, armed with lead-filled white truncheons, spread out along the deserted streets of the Polish seaport of Gdansk. During the past two years, supporters of the outlawed Solidarity trade union had turned the annual holiday celebration into a demonstration against the government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski. As they were last year, the authorities appeared thoroughly prepared to handle any attempt to disrupt the May Day parade...
...dissatisfaction of some leaders of the armed forces stems in part from the involvement of at least 6,000 Libyan troops in the civil war in Chad. The officers are also reported to be upset about the growth of the "people's army," a politicized militia whose existence threatens the armed forces' influence. Last month Libyan air force planes bombed an army base in Benghazi after all or part of the garrison mutinied. Reports from foreign residents say that about 20 soldiers were killed. But the biggest disruption occurred on March 25 when a mysterious explosion heavily damaged...
Gemayel's chief military opponents, Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt and Nabih Berri, the head of the Shi'ite Amal militia, plan to seek a new electoral system for Lebanon's moribund 99-member parliament, involving nationwide proportional representation. If accepted, the arrangement would strongly favor the country's Muslims, who make up 50% to 60% of the Lebanese population. In addition, Jumblatt and Berri are determined to end the longstanding Christian Maronite domination of the upper reaches of the Lebanese civil service and army...
Reacting to those anticipated changes, a growing number of Maronites favor the outright division of Lebanon into religious and political enclaves. A spokesman for the Christians' powerful Lebanese Forces militia went so far last week as to threaten to ignore the results of the Lausanne meeting if they were deemed unsatisfactory. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, another kind of territorial split for Lebanon was under consideration. By the terms of the May 17 agreement, Israel was bound to withdraw its 22,000 troops from southern Lebanon provided that Syria, with 62,000 troops on Lebanese soil, did likewise. Now the Israeli...