Word: shied
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...Ambassador Ryan Crocker, representing the U.S. in the talks called by the Iraqi government, complained that the Iranians continue to support Shi'ite militants engaged in sectarian and anti-U.S. violence in Iraq - and charged that such activity had actually escalated since the previous meeting between the two sides in Baghdad, eight weeks ago. His Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, reportedly dismissed the U.S. complaints and said they were not backed by any proof. He blamed the security crisis in Iraq on the presence of "foreign forces," and also demanded the release of Iranian personnel being held there...
...post-Petraeus eras. Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Marr, who commands 1-15, was stationed outside Fallujah with the 82nd Airborne in 2003 and early 2004. Back then the immediate problem for American forces was the Sunni insurgency. Four years later sectarian divisions in Iraqi society and the mainly Shi'a Iraqi security forces are largely driving the conflict. Marr, a 20-year Army veteran, confronts that problem with the heavily Shi'ite police unit he works with in this dusty farming community 20 miles southeast of Baghdad. "It is difficult to get people to reconcile when they can't get past...
There is little he can do at ground level to change the National Police - its recruiting and staffing are handled in Baghdad by the Shi'ite-dominated Ministry of Interior. "What's the long-term goal for what they're going to do with those guys?" Marr asked. "I don't really know...
...better success implementing the American side of the strategy. "We came in whole hog under the new counter-insurgency doctrine," Marr said. He added that with a more engaged American presence in the area, tensions between Sunnis and Shi'ites have eased. That assessment is seconded by soldiers like Specialist Benjamin Block, 24. He served two tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps before joining the Army last July. His final trip with the Marines was as part of the unit that took over for Marr's 82nd Airborne in Fallujah. "The area around Fallujah wasn't really secure," Block...
...regime in Tehran, as many as 500 Hizballah operatives are at work training militiamen at the behest of Iran. The PMOI, which claims to have an extensive intelligence network, says most of the Hizballah operatives are serving as trainers or assistant trainers to the Mahdi Army, the Shi'ite militia of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr...