Word: yamani
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...According to Iraqi soldiers involved in the battle and its aftermath, the group's leader, Ahmad al-Hassaani al-Yamani, planned to lead his followers into Najaf and kill the Shi'a religious leaders there. Chief among the targets would have been Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, the most revered Shi'a cleric in Iraq. His rivals slain, al-Yamani planned to lead his followers into the Imam Ali shrine, the resting place of Mohammad's son-in-law and one of Shi'a Islam's holiest sites...
...Instead, word of their presence and their plan leaked out and found its way to the Iraqi government, which launched a raid on Sunday that aimed to wipe the group out before it could leave its base. But the fighters of Yamani's Army of Heaven proved better prepared and more tenacious than the Iraqi military had anticipated. The area's orchards are separated from one another by high dirt berms. The Army of Heaven, armed with heavy machine guns, had turned the berms into formidable defensive positions. An Iraqi soldier who participated in the battle said the carnage...
When they got to Geneva, Gaghan learned that "all the business of the Middle East is conducted in hotel lobbies." Schmoozing with oil traders and arms dealers at the Hotel Intercontinental, he spotted former Saudi Oil Minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, still one of the world's most powerful people, and sent him a note requesting an interview, revealing what Gaghan calls the "pathetic ineptitude of my methodology...
...Yamani never called, but he was in the minority. Gaghan was stunned by how eager people were to chat with him. "You're on the boat of the head of military intelligence for a North African nation. This man is worldly. And when the conversation turns to me, it's, 'Do you know Leonardo DiCaprio?'" Besides being fascinated by fame and flattered by Gaghan's interest in the Middle East, most believed themselves experts on the movie business; they pitied Gaghan because, as everyone knows, so few scripts ever get filmed. "That mix of interest and condescension was really useful...
...such accord could be reached last week. Instead, OPEC was forced to abide by majority rule, with Libya, Iran and Algeria going on record as opposed to the price cut. Nonetheless OPEC tried to look happy with what it had done. Was Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani pleased? "Yes, I am," he said. But he was uncharacteristically quiet, and he canceled his customary postsession news conference...