Word: qaeda
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...heart of the film is a half dozen sequences, most of them on bomb-squad detail, one long, terrific one showing the unit holed up with some Brit mercenaries (led by Ralph Fiennes, the star of Bigelow's 1995 futuristic movie Strange Days) fighting off fire from al-Qaeda-in-Iraq types out in the desert. Boal and Bigelow know that there's enough tension in the act of walking up to a bomb and trying to defuse it; they don't have to amp up the suspense with theatrics...
According to Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based terrorism expert with the International Crisis Group, the breakdown of negotiations may have freed the most radicalized faction of a fluid coalition of homegrown separatists, criminals, and foreign jihadis trained by Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda-linked international terrorist group. "The MILF was keeping a fairly tight lid on the radical elements," Jones says. "When things were looking bright for a peace agreement, they were even providing intelligence on foreign jihadis to the armed forces of the Philippines." Such cooperation is unlikely to continue, Jones says...
...Mindanao continues to spiral towards all-out war, Acharya says, terrorist attacks by more splinter factions are likely to increase, since the rogue MILF commanders directing the violence are also those closest linked to foreign jihadis and Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda-financed terrorist group that has carried out dozens of kidnappings and large-scale terrorist attacks, including the 2004 bombing of a Manila ferry that killed 116. Worsening chaos in Mindanao could embolden the most violent and radical elements in this protean coalition to export their jihad beyond the troubled island. "I will not be surprised by that...
Washington may be glad to hand over the formerly al-Qaeda infested area and the Shi'te dominated government in Baghdad happy to receive it. But not everyone is celebrating. A leader of the Awakening movement narrows his eyes and tightens his jaw at the idea of the U.S. hand-over. "We wanted it to be postponed but the decision had already been made by the government and we cannot change it," says Sheikh Mohammad Mahmood al Natah, the spokesperson for the Awakening Council. The hand-over, originally scheduled for June, took place on Monday, making Anbar the 11th...
Anbar's tribal leaders say they feel threatened. "Our reward for defeating Al Qaeda is that we've been sidelined," says Sheikh Hamid al Hayess, a senior member of the movement. "We are sensing a change toward us," says Colonel Rashid. "The government should help us, not try to break us with its decisions...