Word: sunnis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rebuilding effort is shaping up as a proxy battle for influence in the Middle East. Oil-rich Sunni Arabs who are worried about the rise of Hizballah and other militant Shi'ite groups in Iran and Iraq don't want to lose Lebanon. (Many of them have summer homes here.) The Saudis have already provided $1 billion in emergency funds to Lebanon's central banks and an additional $500 million in reconstruction aid to the Lebanese government. The rebuilding frenzy could provide an opportunity for the U.S. to improve its tarnished reputation with the Lebanese people...
...Sunni village of Jibbayn, panic-stricken residents beg the UNIFIL convoy for lifts to the comparative safety of Tyre, a coastal town that so far has remained relatively immune to the Israeli assault. But the UNIFIL peacekeepers are under orders not to transport civilians from the area, so the disappointed villagers, a few aged men and women, shoulder the brown cardboard boxes of food and stalk resignedly back to their homes. Israeli troops have deployed at the northern end of Jibbayn, cutting the road to Teir Harfa village to which the UNIFIL convoy was hoping to proceed. "The Israelis have...
...Italians won the tournament, it was our driver Wisam--not our Milanese photographer, Franco Pagetti--who had to be restrained from shooting an AK-47 into the air, the traditional Arab celebration. But even the enjoyment of a faraway sporting event can be poisoned by sectarian suspicions: a Sunni neighbor asked me, with a knowing smirk, whether our Shi'ite staff members had supported the Iranian team. When I said no, he was surprised. Many Sunnis believe that Shi'ite sympathies--and not just in sporting matters--lie with Iraq's ancient enemy to the east. "In Najaf and Basra...
...Sunnis like Mahmud now feel vulnerable in Baghdad, which for centuries was the citadel from which they lorded it over Iraq's Shi'ite majority. For the first three years after Saddam's fall, much of the violence in and around the capital was committed against Shi'ites by Sunni insurgents and jihadis. But since the beginning of this year, Shi'ite death squads--widely believed to emanate from militias like the Mahdi Army and the Iran-trained Badr Organization--have become the main practitioners of terrorist violence. Each side has its signature style of murder. When Iraqis hear news...
...former comrades-in-arms, militiamen are often allowed to roam unchecked. They are routinely accused of conducting "joint operations"--a euphemism for murderous rampages that police watch or even join. Sometimes police are accused of moonlighting as militiamen, using official vehicles and weapons. A three-car convoy belonging to Sunni M.P. Tayseer al-Mashhadani was stopped last month by 30 gunmen in a Shi'ite suburb. Al-Mashhadani and seven bodyguards were bundled into unmarked cars and driven away. An eighth bodyguard escaped and reported that the abductors had police-issue weapons. Al-Mashhadani hasn't been released. An even...