Word: sunni
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Islam. That introduces the shadow - both real and imagined - of the primary Shi'a power in the region, Iran, which is happy to take credit even if its actual influence may still be negligible. When Iran is mentioned, however, both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the predominant Sunni power in the region, start quaking. And al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, no friend to any of the parties, is happy to sow destabilization so it can thrive. (Is Iran causing trouble in Yemen's hidden...
...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's capital. Though al-Maliki has promised additional security, analysts fear an escalation of violence ahead...
...things that the Yemeni 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...
...broad interests in Afghanistan are the same as Washington's. The Islamic Republic doesn't want to see a return to chaos on its eastern flank, which would probably lead to a massive refugee influx. As a Shi'ite state, it would see the return to power of militant Sunni hard-liners as a setback. And Iran, which faces a drug-addiction problem of alarming proportions, shares the U.S. desire to curtail Afghanistan's opium trade. If anything, "Tehran stands to lose much more than Washington if Afghanistan reverts back to an al-Qaeda-infested, Taliban-controlled narco state," says...
...lite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was able to stir up sectarian tension in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein by helping arm and finance the Shi'ite militias that first fought against the U.S.-led coalition and then conducting a campaign of violence against Sunni Iraqis. The commander of the Quds Force, Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, is also credited with reining in the Shi'ite militias in 2007 - a key factor in helping the U.S. surge strategy succeed...