Word: militia
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...stay away, although the authenticity of those claims could not be verified. Indeed, the latest reports confirm that Mousavi and Karroubi were themselves conspicuous by their absence from Friday's prayers. Ahmadinejad, however, was in attendance as was fellow politician Mohsen Rezaie. It's thought that the basij militia loyal to Ahmadinejad - who have been at the forefront of brutal attacks on opposition supporters - were there in force. While this created a potentially volatile security situation - just a gathering of hundreds of thousands of people, divided by political faction and stoked by a week of fervor - it also squeezes Mousavi...
...Somalia took an even deadlier turn on Thursday when a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into the front of a hotel in the west of the country, killing Somalia's National Security Minister, a former ambassador and at least 20 others. Somalia's extremist Islamist militia, al-Shabaab, said it carried out the attack...
...split. In January, Sharif formed a government that espouses Shari'a law but also seeks dialogue with the West. Aweys formed the more militant Hizbul Islam, which is seemingly opposed to any contact with the West. He also allies himself with al-Shabaab, originally the ICU's militia, which today, while publicly denying links to al-Qaeda, has managed to attract hundreds of foreign jihadis to its ranks. (See pictures of Osama bin Laden...
...regime is brought down and thus have to calibrate their dissent. More important, an unarmed popular movement can topple an authoritarian regime only if the security forces switch sides or stay neutral. But Iran's key security forces - the élite Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Basij militia - are bastions of support for Ahmadinejad. And they have used hardly a fraction of their repressive power. Also, while the opposition draws far larger crowds, there are still millions of Iranians strongly backing Ahmadinejad. So even if the government is unable to destroy the opposition, it's unlikely that the opposition will...
...Earlier this week, I received an e-mail from a Lebanese who was present at the creation of the country's Iranian-backed, Shi'ite militia Hizballah in 1982 and on familiar terms with its most radical and violent members. He wrote: "Are you people crazy backing Mousavi, a patron of Hizballah's terrorist wing?" (See behind-the-scenes pictures of Mir-Hossein Mousavi...