Word: shied
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...finally settled on a date for the country's second parliamentary election since Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003, breaking a deadlock caused by months of sectarian disputes. But two days later, a series of car bombs in Baghdad killed at least 127 people and wounded more than 400. Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed al-Qaeda for the attacks, accusing the Sunni militant organization of attempting to "create chaos in the country." The coordinated attacks--the third in a string of massive bombings in Baghdad since August--prompted doubts over the government's ability to guard Iraq...
...Houthis says their quest for cultural and religious rights since 2004 intensified in August, when the government responded by razing villages in an assault the Yemenis called "Operation Scorched Earth." Yemen and Saudi Arabia say the Houthis, part of a Shi'ite Muslim sect known as the Zaydis, are receiving their funding, weapons and training from Iran in a bid to destabilize the region.(See pictures of the hidden war in Yemen...
...Iranians basically were happy to take credit for it because they like to be seen as the protector for Shi'a as well as Muslims all over the world," Sick adds. "[But] it's not at all clear that the Iranians are doing anything more than just being cheerleaders on the side...
Indeed, while Iran has been publicly linked to militant groups Hizballah and Hamas, as well as Shi'ite militias in Iraq, its Houthi link is tenuous. Zaydi Shi'ism is distinct from the "Twelver" Shi'ism practiced in Iran, and Houthi demands have centered on rights and resources, something Princeton University Yemen expert Gregory Johnson says is rooted in Houthi feelings of marginalization following the 1962 Yemeni revolution. Observers are also quick to point out that Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh is himself a Zaydi...
...government has gotten particularly skilled at doing over the past several years is linking their own domestic crises to larger regional and western concerns," says Johnson, noting that at other times Yemen has attempted to link the Houthis and al-Qaeda, a militant Sunni group that has openly targeted Shi'ites in other contexts, such as Iraq. "I think a large concern now is, given the sniping back and forth between Iran and Saudi Arabia, that Yemen's continual crying of wolf in this might be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that certainly Iran is now supporting...