Word: militiamen
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...night it is cool and damp. The lush sound of the Mediterranean surf is punctuated by the regular whump of outgoing mortar rounds aimed into the Chouf foothills and, every ten minutes or so, the clatter of a Lebanese Army .50-cal. machine gun firing at Druze militiamen and their allies. Each morning before 8 a.m. the troops finish breakfast (eggs to order, French toast and, as ever, Spam). The volleyball games and group jogs have been rare since the hostile fire turned intense late in the summer. Between duties, some soldiers kill stray scorpions and centipedes in the three...
...using the external menace as an excuse for not fulfilling earlier promises. Says Junta Coordinator Daniel Ortega Saavedra: "For a country to achieve democracy, it needs stability." The Sandinistas have also discovered that the fervor of their young people has provided them with an effective, albeit inexperienced corps of militiamen eager to confront the enemy...
...mounting rebel threat, Dos Santos is not likely to renounce Soviet sponsorship of his regime. Nor is he likely to agree to South Africa's demand for a withdrawal of the Cuban troops, who help the 35,000 government soldiers and as many as 50,000 militiamen fight the UNITA guerrillas. With Angola's future uncertain, the chances of breaking southern Africa's broader diplomatic logjams seem equally remote...
What had happened? Practically everybody agreed that the gunmen were right-wing Lebanese Christian militiamen. Said one officer of the Lebanese Forces: "We have been waiting to get in there for years." More baffling was the role the Israelis had played. Certainly Israeli soldiers had not done the shooting, but the Israelis controlled the area, had checkpoints near the camps, and were within earshot of the firing. How and why had they allowed the militiamen to enter the camps...
...year after the ghastly massacre of hundreds of Palestinians, heavily armed men still prowl the shanty town of Shatila on the southern fringes of Beirut. But instead of the feared fatigue uniforms of Phalangist militiamen, they wear spiffy red-and-gold scarves emblazoned with the Venetian Lion of St. Mark, and their presence inspires comfort rather than terror. They are Italian marines who keep strict watch from a ring of sentry posts and constantly patrol streets that are now as safe as any in Lebanon...