Word: shied
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...context of the cost of the preceding five years of the war and reminding O'Reilly that the Iraqis have not yet stepped up to self-governance. (And, in what was probably an intentional dig at McCain, making the point that he knew the distinction between Sunni and Shi...
...military officials, who have paid and supported the fighters, hoped to see much of the movement absorbed into the Iraqi government security forces. But the predominantly Shi'ite government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has largely shunned the groups and lately taken an even harder line against them. Iraqi security forces have arrested multiple Awakening leaders and disbanded some of the bands. For a time joint patrols and checkpoints involving both Iraqi security forces and Awakening fighters allowed the groups to function essentially as paramilitaries alongside the Iraqi army and police. But the growing strength of Iraqi security forces...
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...
...Awakening leaders attended the ceremony in Ramadi, a snub that Sheikh Natah says was intended as a clear message to the government. At heart is a power struggle between the Awakening council and the Iraqi Islamic Party, made up of Sunni exiles who are allied with the Shi'ite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The party holds 36 of the Anbar council's 41 seats. Those posts are up for grabs if a slow-moving electoral law is approved by Iraq's bickering parliamentarians and the provincial elections that were slated for October take place later this year...
...Things have changed in recent months, however, with al-Maliki steadily strengthening his own political footing. Through a series of battles earlier this year, the improved Iraqi security forces nearly managed to marginalize the Mahdi Army militia of powerful Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the Prime Minister's chief rival. Moreover, the Iraqi army has shown new muscle in Sunni areas of Iraq like Diyala province, even as the Prime Minister shored up Sunni support for his government in Baghdad - a delicate political process involving force and cajoling but little compromise on his part...