Word: militiamen
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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...
...about 20 miles southeast of Baghdad. Its relatively small population once made it an afterthought for the over-stretched American units in and around Baghdad. Now, with the troop surge under way in Baghdad, the U.S. hopes that an increased presence in places like Madain will deny insurgents and militiamen safe havens on the outskirts of the capital...
Daqduq is not alone, say U.S. military officials and others who keep tabs on Iran's activities in Iraq. According to the People's Mujaheddin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a longtime opposition group to the regime in Tehran, as many as 500 Hizballah operatives are at work training militiamen at the behest of Iran. The PMOI, which claims to have an extensive intelligence network, says most of the Hizballah operatives are serving as trainers or assistant trainers to the Mahdi Army, the Shi'ite militia of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr...
...government school's single row of tiny classrooms. The boys crib last-minute homework from each other. Then the men with guns arrive-six of them in a pickup truck, two more on a motorbike, all toting M-16 assault rifles. It is the job of these government militiamen to protect two cars and five motorbikes carrying a dozen teachers. Their convoy speeds into this sleepy village with the well-rehearsed urgency of a presidential motorcade...
...There is no debate about why: in the wake of an American pullout, Baghdad would be quickly dominated by Shi'ite militias largely unbloodied by the American campaign. Already, well-armed security forces that pose as independent are riddled with militiamen who take direction from Shi'ite leaders. Death-squad killings of Sunnis would rise. Against such emboldened forces, Sunni insurgents and elements of Saddam Hussein's former regime would retaliate with their weapon of choice: car-bomb attacks against Shi'ite markets, shrines, police stations and recruiting depots...