Word: itely
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...ite fortunes began to change in the 1960s, following the arrival in the coastal city of Tyre of Moussa Sadr, a highly educated Shi'ite cleric from the holy city of Qom in Iran. A charismatic preacher and shrewd organizer, Moussa Sadr formed a devoted following and in 1969 founded the Higher Shi'ite Council to represent Shi'ite interests to the Beirut government. The council worked for improved schools and hospitals in Shi'ite communities and distributed some welfare funds...
...then adorned with the messianic title of Imam, Moussa Sadr established and funded a Shi'ite militia named Amal, the Arabic word for "hope." Celebrating the deeds of Shi'ite warriors of the past, the Imam declared, "Arms were the adornment of men." Moussa Sadr then vanished in a manner guaranteed to immortalize him to his followers. On a visit to Libya in 1978, he simply disappeared. Many Shi'ites still believe that he remains the captive of Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi...
...invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Under the leadership of Nabih Berri, Amal has forged an on-again-off-again alliance with the Druze forces of Walid Jumblatt and sometimes serves as the agent of Syria, a major force in the Lebanese conflict. In February 1984, Berri persuaded Shi'ite members of the Lebanese Army to defect to Amal, which proceeded to take control of West Beirut...
...second pro-Iranian group, led by Shi'ite clerics and known as Hizballah (Party of God), sprang up around the same time. Its most magnetic leader, though he disclaims sole authority, is Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. Richard Helms, a former CIA director and Ambassador to Iran, describes Fadlallah as "Khomeini's spiritual man" in Lebanon. Fadlallah is widely believed to have played at least some role in the rash of bloody anti-Western car bombings, including the 1983 attacks on the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marine barracks that claimed a total of 258 American lives. In a recent interview published...
Some believe that the current hijacking was plotted by a faction in Amal calling itself the Sadr Brigade, purportedly composed of friends and relatives of the Shi'ite detainees in Israel. There are many such informal alliances within Lebanon's Shi'ite community, most of them extremist and many of them revolving around a single electrifying personality. "We're not talking about neat organizations," says Helms. "These are people who are inclined to pick a title that suits them after they act." Indeed, the most famous such group, Islamic Jihad (Holy War), apparently exists solely as a disembodied and anonymous...