Word: shied
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High-profile visits by political figures are relatively rare in Najaf, the quiet holy city in southern Iraq where Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani lives. Sistani, the most venerated Shi'ite religious leader in the country, shuns the limelight. But it fell his way last week nonetheless when Iraqi Prime Ministry Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker appeared in Najaf separately within days of each other. It raised questions whether Sistani is making a comeback as a voice in political decision-making in Iraq...
...West. But in the absence of any real central authority, the country was already starting to unravel along sectarian lines. Lebanon's multi-religious character and political system - which divides power among the country's largest sects - is famously fragile. The sectarian feeling unleashed by clashes between Hizballah, a Shi'a Muslim party, and government supporters, who are mostly Sunni and Druze Muslims, threatened to push the country into another civil...
Residents of the impoverished and enormous Shi'ite warren in east Baghdad have been under siege since April, when Iraqi security forces backed by American troops began clashing in the area with fighters from the Mahdi Army militia led by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. For weeks gun battles and air strikes came almost every day in Sadr City as soldiers and militiamen faced off in a stalemated battle at the edge of the district, which is the Mahdi Army's stronghold. A hastily arranged truce between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Sadr halted the fighting last week. Under...
...Israel's main interest in dialogue with Syria lies in reining in the Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hizballah, and also the Palestinian Hamas movement, both implacable enemies of Israel that enjoy extensive Syrian patronage. The Jewish State's other objective: to limit the malign influence of Syria's key ally, Iran...
...Over the past six months, Chalabi has focused a lot of attention on delivering services to Sadr City, the northeast Baghdad Shi'ite slum that is a major stronghold of the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. To do this required close coordination with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which has over the past month been locked in fierce battles with U.S. and Iraqi government forces. The U.S. alleges that elements of the Mahdi Army have received training and weapons from Iran. "We talk to the Madhi Army," says Chalabi spokesman Mohammad Hassan al-Moussawi, "because the Madhi Army...