Word: shied
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...dangerous enemy on the run. In 2008 it may face an even more entrenched foe. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the primary target of the American troop surge and counter-insurgency strategy, appears to be on its last legs after a year of being attacked from all sides. But Shi'ite militias, which have deep roots in Iraq's Shi'a communities and the Shi'ite-dominated government, may now pose a more serious long-term threat...
...some ways AQI was a victim of its own success. It is practically the only organization in Iraq that all the other players in the country saw as an unacceptable threat. Both the U.S. military and the Shi'ite-dominated government had fought the Sunni jihadist group for years. By the beginning of 2007, Sunni tribal leaders and nationalist insurgents had also begun battling with their former allies in AQI in order to retake control of Sunni communities...
Meanwhile, the Mahdi Army, Iraq's largest and deadliest Shi'ite militia, made it through 2007 by refusing to trade body blows with the American military. Petraeus, echoing other American officials, told reporters that "the potential long-term challenge to Iraq is the militia-extremist challenge." To keep the political peace in Iraq, Petraeus and the U.S. military have been careful not to attach the names of the Mahdi Army and its leader Moqtada al Sadr to the threat, hence the use of terms like "the militia-extremist challenge." Sadr controls a sizable political organization as well as his militia...
...fortunes of militias like the Mahdi Army. Sadr declared a cease-fire at the end of August after his militia took the blame for fighting in the holy city of Karbala. But it retains its ability to fight other militias in southern Iraq. It is also still active in Shi'ite neighborhoods of Baghdad, even though its leaders have held back from fighting American troops for control of the streets. In fact, the cease-fire may have allowed Sadr to consolidate his fragmented and often unruly organization...
Meanwhile, Sadr's militia may be asserting mafia-like control over the poor Shi'ite areas where it has long provided the services and security the government has not. "What you do have is, the Mahdi Army, Inc.," said Petraeus, backing up an earlier assessment by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The militia has come to dominate not simply by force, but also by controlling staples like fuel and electricity...