Word: shying
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...raid in Sadr City targeting a so-called "secret cell" of Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army was a reminder that even as they press their campaign against al-Qaeda aligned Sunni militants, U.S. forces are ramping up operations against what they see as a more serious long-term threat: Shi'ite militias supported by Iran. The attack killed, by the U.S. military's count, 30 men allegedly involved in receiving weapons and training from Iran. Attacks of that scale in the militia's stronghold are not unheard of, but they are rare. Since the two sides declared a truce...
...full-blown civil war. But American efforts to turn tribal leaders and armed Sunni groups against the jihadists in their midst have borne fruit in the security realm this year, although such groups remain harshly critical of the Maliki government. That government has made no discernible progress bringing Shi'ite militia groups under control, and is now contending with multiple defections and the possibility of being brought down by a no-confidence vote...
...Until now, Shi'ite militiamen have evaded the punishing attention the U.S. and Iraqi forces have lavished on Sunni insurgents, and have maintained a very strong presence within the Iraqi police and army. The policy of waiting for the government to resolve the militia problem has passed from the realm of wishful thinking and into the realm of fantasy, and the U.S. military now appears more inclined to take strong action...
...While al-Qaeda and its affiliates pose the greatest threat to Iraqi civilians, the U.S. military official says "the far more dangerous long-term threat comes from within the Shi'ite militias." He said the current trajectory risked creating an Iraq in which the "the government is not in control of the state." Iran sheltered most of the leadership of the current Iraqi government, and Shi'ite politicians maintain that relationship. So, some Iranian influence in Iraq is inevitable. But the presence of a Hizballah-style armed group, more powerful in some areas than the national government and receiving weapons...
Even members of other Shi'ite parties that form the dominant block in parliament routinely complain that they are shut out by the Prime Minister and his coterie. A faction of his own Dawa Party, led by his predecessor Ibrahim al-Jaafari, has begun quietly to seek a new Shi'ite-Kurdish alliance that would eject Maliki. And another former prime minister, Iyad Allawi, is trying to cobble together a secular-Sunni alliance that would put Allawi back...