Word: militiaization
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...Mahdi Army began appearing in force in Diwaniyah, a predominantly Shi'ite area of about 400,000 people sitting amid some of Iraq's most fertile farmlands. Violence soon followed. Women accused of violating the draconian brand of Islamic law espoused by al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia began turning up dead in Diwaniyah. Residents working with coalition forces at a Polish army base in the area became targets too, as did local journalists, wealthy residents and some members of the police, which are thought to have links to a rival Shi'ite militia, the Badr Brigade...
...coalition government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - has used a five-month cease-fire with Israeli forces to stage an unprecedented arms build-up in the Gaza strip. "They're armed to the teeth," said one senior U.S. official. "This is not like your average little militia." Indeed, one Israeli official said that, in recent months, Hamas has sent "dozens" of militants to Iran for advanced training in weapons that can destroy aircraft and tanks. Hamas insists that Iranian aid comes solely in the form of financing for the cash-strapped Palestinian government bureaucracy...
...Iran-Hamas links emerged as "Topic A," U.S. diplomats said. The Iranians are also a major bankroller of the Palestinian militants, and U.S. State and Treasury officials are urging Gulf officials and bankers to stanch the flows of funds from Iran to Hamas and Hizballah, the Lebanese Shi'a militia. The main conduits from Tehran to the two militia groups are thought to be Iranian bank branches in the Gulf and Islamic charity organizations, according to a U.S. official...
...five or six more families come here," says Bishop Michael Kisargi from the headquarters of the Chaldean Church in Lebanon. "Everyone can tell me a story about persecution by Muslims." One of the worst, he said, was from a family whose daughter had been raped 15 times by militia members...
...small minority without a militia of their own, Iraqi Christians have been persecuted by both Shi'a and Sunni Muslim militias, and also by criminal gangs. "They think because we have liquor stores or live in nice neighborhoods we have more money," says Ghassan Mansou Chamoun, an Iraqi Christian from Mosul who arrived in Lebanon in December. The 36-year-old taxi driver left after receiving death threats from the Muslim family of one his passengers who died in an accident. "They wanted $50,000 or my head," he said...