Word: shied
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Gradually Shi'ite tribes, themselves tired of the most extreme elements of their own sectarian militias, joined the process. The result was the document signed Thursday, which identified local governance, rule of law, the local economy, "social well being," and security as its main priorities. Wearing tribal robes and head scarves, the 32 sheiks signed the document and shook hands with Iraqi political and military leaders in a grip-and-grin ceremony easily reminiscent of an American college graduation...
Amid reports of mounting Shi'a infighting there, officials in the Southern city of Diwaniyah, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, say that not only Iran but other neighboring countries in the Gulf may be involved in stoking the violence. Two incidents this week have ratcheted up their concern. On Wednesday, seven Iraqi police officers were killed by a bomb in the nearby village of Afak. That followed bloodshed on Monday, when at least six civilians were killed and dozens wounded in a mortar barrage on the Polish-run Coalition base in town...
Such spectacular incidents overshadow the almost daily clashes between the rival Shi'ite militias that inevitably kill and maim civilians. Diwaniyah now nearly rivals Basra as a vicious free-for-all in the growing civil war among the Shi'a. While none of the recent fighting can be directly linked to any outside group, local security officials say that they can now add to the list of troublemakers elements of al-Qaeda and other Sunni Arab fighters, who appear to be taking advantage of the chaos to regain a toehold in the region and accelerate the flow of Shi...
Even without these new sectarian elements, clashes between Shi'a factions have made Diwaniyah a recent flashpoint in Iraq even as other areas, most notably cities in Anbar Province, have calmed down. The local government and security forces of Diwaniyah are largely controlled by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and its armed wing, the Badr Corps, who are challenged almost daily in the streets by members of the rival Jaish al Mahdi, the militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al Sadr. (The SIIC was formerly known as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, with the initials SCIRI.) While...
...semi-autonomous political region in the South that they, of course, would control. The Sadrists, for their part, wrap themselves in a nationalist banner and advocate a strong central government in Baghdad, where the Sadrists have the majority of their most fervent constituency and the ear of the Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, and where they run several key government ministries...