Word: shied
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...political district of Mahmudiyah lies just south of metropolitan Baghdad and includes the violent urban centers of Yusifiyah, Latifiyah and Mahmudiyah. It shares a rough-and-tumble neighborhood with Anbar to the west and Babil to the south. A mixed region of Shi'a and Sunni, city and country, the mostly agricultural region suffers all the sectarian, economic and political woes of the capital. While the region's Sunni and Shi'ite tribes battled each other for land and primacy, they found a common enemy in the U.S. troops stationed there. But that situation changed about four months...
...Americans. In 1991 he negotiated a cease-fire with General Norman Schwarzkopf at the end of the first Gulf War. (Schwarzkopf would later say he was "suckered" by Hashem, who persuaded him to permit Iraq the use of helicopters later deployed by Saddam to kill thousands of rebellious Shi'ites.) Hashem rose to chief of staff of the Iraqi army and then Defense Minister. He remained popular with his troops, who admired his military bearing and plainspokenness. In April 2003, when Saddam's propaganda was still claiming military successes against the invaders, it was Hashem who announced publicly that...
Lebanon's maritime and land borders are also under close observation since last year's war between Israel and the militant Shi'ite Hizballah organization, mainly to prevent arms being smuggled into the country. That makes it harder for drugs to be whisked out of Lebanon - which creates a looming local problem. With cannabis having a shelf life of about two years, most dealers plan to sell their products in the domestic market. Recreational drug use is on the rise in Lebanon. "The problem is that drugs are readily available and relatively cheap," says Brigitte Khoury, a clinical psychologist...
...Division, said the locally organized Sunni groups have already driven al-Qaeda out of the urban areas and into a rough no-man's land to the north, sandwiching them precariously between his paratroopers and elements of the 10th Mountain Division. In and around Musayyib to the south, the Shi'ite groups have manned checkpoints along roadways that once hid bombs. Since late July, roughly about the time the militias started working, no one has attacked the paratroopers there...
...measure of skepticism is built into the program. Sunni and Shi'ite insurgents who once fought or still fight the Americans are surely among the new militias - as they are in the police and army. But deputizing them allows the Americans to gather personal information, take fingerprints and track their whereabouts for a least part of the time. The volunteers sign three-month contracts, wear only special armbands instead of uniforms and use their own weapons, but they get paid three-quarters of what Iraqi police recruits receive and are given preference for joining the police and army. "It gives...