Word: tribe
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...Still, Zainuddin was clearly of some use to the Pakistani military. The militant leader hailed from Mehsud's tribe and came from the same area. The army has insisted, with good reason, that it needs local support to be able to take on the likes of Mehsud. Zainuddin, if his claims to command thousands of fighters were to be believed (and many analysts believe they were inflated), could have helped the army destabilize Mehsud by forcing him to fight on two fronts. (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban...
...similar arrangement in 2007 with two different and more powerful militant leaders proved disastrous. When Maulvi Nazir of the rival Ahmedzai Wazir tribe in South Waziristan took on Mehsud and Uzbek groups aligned to al-Qaeda, the Pakistan army backed him. After his men killed 250 Uzbek fighters, the army entered a nonaggression pact with Nazir and his associate Hafiz Gul Bahadur. But Nazir continued to attack U.S. forces across the border, and was targeted in air strikes. Enraged, Nazir and Bahadur shed their differences and formed a new alliance with Mehsud earlier this year. Now, all three groups could...
...Pakistan military may also call on rival warlords to harry Mehsud from within his territory. In recent days, Qari Zainuddin, a member of the Mehsud tribe, has spoken out strongly against his fellow clansman, denouncing Mehsud's brutality and vowing revenge for the murder of his relatives. Zainuddin and another group, led by Turkistan Bhittani, enjoy the covert backing of Pakistan's security services. "In the past, these guys were afraid to confront Baitullah Mehsud, because there was no one there to protect them," says Askari-Rizvi. The army could now provide that support as the government uses political means...
...zero-sum mode, Muhammad changed the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca. According to Islamic tradition, he expelled three tribes of Jews from Medina - and killed the adult males in the third tribe, which was suspected of collaborating with Meccans in a battle against Medina...
...failure is an indicator of the region's political health. But within days of the vote, as counting continued, paramilitary police stormed the election-commission offices in Nairobi and forced them to declare for incumbent President Mwai Kibaki. The President is a member of the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe and a group widely resented for its dominance of government and business since independence in 1963. Opposition leader Raila Odinga, a Luo from western Kenya, accused the Kikuyus of trying to keep power for themselves. His supporters, mainly Luo and Kalenjin from around Eldoret, set the country on fire...