Word: mortars
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...foot, to cast ballots in what will decide a new makeup for 14 of Iraq's 18 provincial councils. Iraqi and U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that insurgents and militia elements may stage attacks on election day. With the vehicle ban, suicide bombers on foot and rocket or mortar fire pose the biggest threats. But so far there has been little sign that Iraq's militants are organizing a bloody show of force. The largest Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is essentially dormant these days. And Sunni insurgent elements in previously volatile areas such...
...current militias is unlikely without a full-scale reoccupation of Gaza, which would involve tens of thousands more Israeli troops over many months. Anything less would leave Hamas as the dominant security presence inside Gaza. So Israel's priority will be to choke off the supply of rockets and mortar shells, which have been smuggled through tunnels from Gaza and fired at Israel. The Israelis want Egypt to police those tunnels under U.S. supervision. Egypt has been reluctant to take on the potential domestic political headache of having foreign troops policing the Gaza border on its soil and fears that...
...Many individuals, private organizations and national governments have repeatedly called on Israel to stop its military operations in Gaza. But where were the calls for peace when Hamas fired 771 rockets and 857 mortar-bombs at Sderot and the Negev from June 2007 to February 2008? Where were the calls for a cessation of violence when Hamas broke last year’s cease-fire? It is high time for the international community to draw the line on Hamas’ destructive behavior and realize that, until Hamas is out of power, Israel will be left with no other option...
...from entering, has caused a serious humanitarian crisis in the area. Hamas has responded to the siege by regularly raining rockets into southern Israeli towns from Gaza. Despite mutual agreement in June 2008 to a 6-month ceasefire, Israel continued their blockade of Gaza and Hamas responded with sporadic mortar hits. After the expiration of the truce on December 19, a surge of Hamas rocket attacks that wounded one Israeli caused the country to step up the blockage. Finally, on December 26, just over a week later, Israeli forces began a massive bombardment of Gaza that has so far left...
...current violence in Gaza. But as is often the case with such clashes in the region, a final resolution may turn out to be the fruit of a particularly chilling horror. The upbeat response to the Franco-Egyptian proposal came just hours after an Israeli mortar strike hit a U.N. school in Gaza, killing 39 Palestinians, many of them children. "I don't think you can say that one terrible event will change everything itself," the French official says. "But it may have helped impress upon people on all sides that this simply must stop...