Word: militia
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...Sunni variant, concentrates religious authority along local and regional lines. The ability of the Shiite clerical hierarchy in Najaf to project its authority into Baghdad, for example, has been visible over the past week: Acting on orders from Najaf, local Imams have organized their followers into armed neighborhood militia that have moved to stop looting, maintain order and restore basic services...
...militiamen beat down with the butts of their guns. Working off his fear, Tahsin says vehemently, "They are shooting people who are saying anything against them, and you don't know who they are because they are all dressed like civilians." He says the Baath Party members and militia fighters use civilians' houses as refuges. And some have mounted mortars on the backs of pickups that can move quickly after firing. The British are wary about returning fire into civilian areas...
...hospital there, Dr. Abdul Hussein, points to the two holes made by an antitank round as it passed straight through the walls of his office while he stood there. What he is afraid to admit--and a local resident and a British medical officer later confirm--is that the militia had been using his hospital as a base to fire on the British forces...
...militia are gone from Zubayr, but Dr. Hussein is apprehensive about a breakdown in security in the town. "It is very unsafe," he says. "There is no police force, no administrative apparatus of any kind." The British have instituted a 7 p.m. curfew but have few spare troops to patrol the streets. During the day, the town appears to be getting back to normal, with foodstuffs appearing in the market. But normality has its limits...
...reassuring dress codes broke down first. Masquerading as passersby and taxi drivers, Iraqi soldiers brought a grim new meaning to the old term "theater of war." Surrendering conscript or armed militia member? Distressed pregnant woman or canny suicide bomber? The difference between combatants and noncombatants was in the eye of the beholder, suddenly. For a coalition sentry manning a checkpoint, the penalty for guessing wrong was death--his own death if he failed to fire in time or that of an innocent if he fired too hastily...