Word: shied
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Death had been taking something of a holiday in Iraq, but it seemed to come back from vacation with a vengeance on Easter, with ominous implications for American strategy. Sunday dawned in Baghdad's Green Zone with a barrage of mortars courtesy of Shi'ite militiamen. Several more mortars poured in throughout the day. Meanwhile, attacks across Iraq on Sunday killed dozens of people, including four American soldiers in a deadly roadside bombing in southern Baghdad. That last incident raised the number of U.S. military fatalities in Iraq to 4,000. While an American military spokesman pointed out that...
After a sharp decline at the end of 2007, violence in Iraq seems to be on the upswing. The weekend's violence indicates that both the Sunni insurgency and the Shi'ite militias retain their ability and their desire to strike their enemies. The largest Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army, is observing a cease-fire and militia violence has fallen dramatically. But rogue elements of the organization continue to launch attacks against Americans. Sunday's mortars were launched from a Shi'ite enclave...
...often happens when Shi'ite militiamen launch mortars and rockets at the Green Zone, some of the missiles don't hit their intended target. Early risers in Karrada, just south of the Green Zone across the Tigris River, heard the distant rumble of a launch and then, seconds later, a crash that rattled windows and sent residents looking for cover. Karrada, home to a number of Shi'ite politicians, is often targeted by Sunni insurgents; Sunday morning it was the accidental victim of other Shi'ites. In an interview with the BBC, Gen. David Petraeus, commander...
Meanwhile, bombings killed dozens of Iraqis. In Mosul a suicide bomber drove into a military base and killed at least 13 police officers, according to the Associated Press. Mosul is the latest hotbed of insurgent violence. Seven Iraqis were also killed when a suicide bomber targeted a Shi'ite neighborhood in Baghdad. The tactics and the targets are both hallmarks of the Sunni insurgency. The American troop surge and the defection of some insurgent groups to the American side has put tremendous pressure on radical religious insurgent groups like al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). American commanders still call...
Could Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's attempts to re-establish control over Basra backfire? There is a growing possibility that it could become a wider intra-Shi'ite war, drawing in the forces loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose ceasefire has been key to the success of the U.S. "surge"? If so, the consequences for American military strategy in Iraq in an all-important political year will be grave...