Word: militiaization
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...against al-Qaeda and get these terrorists." Meles says, "U.S. air assets were used for bombing on two occasions." The first attack was on the night of Jan. 7, after U.S. special-operations forces picked up intelligence that Fazul and Aden Hashi Ayro--a notorious and ruthless Afghanistan-trained militia leader--were riding in a convoy close to Ras Kamboni. According to an Ethiopian officer who was present, a local herdsman was paid to walk past the convoy and drop an electronic beam, which guided the air strike. Ayro was wounded. Initial media reports said Fazul was dead...
...Somalia's Red Crescent Society, was sworn in as Prime Minister.) Government forces stormed the U.N. World Food Program compound in October and briefly took its head of mission hostage. And the jihadis are regrouping. Ayro, now recovered, is back in Mogadishu at the head of the UIC militia. He recently issued a proclamation hailing bin Laden and calling on Somalis to target peacekeepers. In September the U.S. embassy in Nairobi publicly warned it had intelligence that Islamist terrorists were planning to kidnap Western tourists from beaches in Kenya...
...darkness. For weeks it has gone like this - relative calm in the city during the day followed on many evenings by a chorus of explosions around the city. In the past several days, however, dawn has brought blasts of its own, a seeming answer by insurgents and militia fighters to assertions by U.S. and Iraqi officials that Baghdad and other areas of Iraq are on the mend...
...Eventually, Fazlullah's didactic sermons started to alienate many of Swat's residents, but by then it was too late - his militia had already established a foothold. Khan, the businessman from Matta, was sent threatening letters after he denounced Fazlullah's men for killing his cousin. "They have spies everywhere," he says. For too long, the central government ignored the problems festering in Swat, concerned that a crackdown on demands for Shari'a would alienate the country's Islam-based political parties. By the time the military tried to intervene, a homegrown insurgency was in full swing. Fazlullah equated resistance...
...long-term consequences of this drop in violence are still unclear. The militia's recent stand-down may be just an attempt to wait out the U.S. military, which will begin drawing down its numbers in the next few months. After suffering heavy losses in pitched battles in 2004, the militia has sought to avoid open confrontations with U.S. forces. The Americans must eventually leave and the Mahdi Army will remain in some form. Still, says Sauer, "Every day that goes by without violence is a win" - a window of opportunity for American troops and their Iraqi allies to weaken...