Word: itely
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Around the runways of Beirut's international airport, the low, sandbagged bunkers form ragged lines, cluttering a 2½-sq.-mi. stretch of barren, unprotected ground. On two sides the old airport fence topped with barbed wire divides the encampment from the predominantly Shi'ite shantytown of Hay es Sullum, where bombed-out buildings sometimes shelter Muslim fighters armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. In the surrounding hills that rise 3,000 ft. from the plain, Druze and Christian militias clash, igniting the night skies with tracer rounds and exploding shells...
...Marines were the victims of the worst outbreak of factional fighting since the Israeli invasion last summer. Although there could be no doubt that Druze and Shi'ite militiamen in the hills and shantytowns near the airport had deliberately targeted the U.S. troops, stray rounds also made their way into the compound. Uneasy about the security of the Marine contingent in Lebanon, the U.S. last week ordered an additional 2,000 Marines from East Africa to the eastern Mediterranean, making them available for service in Lebanon if they should be needed...
Almost before anyone realized it, a minor incident had exploded into an all-out fight between the Lebanese army and the Shi'ite Amal militia. When the army moved into Amal strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs, masked gunmen representing several Muslim factions took control of their neighborhoods in West Beirut, sending civilians scurrying to the safety of their homes. Armed with rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47 assault rifles and light mortars, they attacked Lebanese army guardposts, barracks and convoys. In response, the Lebanese army dispatched 10,000 troops, backed up by tanks and armored personnel carriers...
...rivalry over political posters. Two weeks ago, the Christian Phalangists celebrated the first anniversary of the late Bashir Gemayel's election as President by putting up posters of their martyred hero. Last week it was the turn of Beirut's large Shi'ite Muslim community. It launched a poster campaign to honor its spiritual leader, Imam Musa Sadr, who disappeared five years ago during a visit to Libya. On Sunday afternoon, several young men in a predominantly Shi'ite suburb in the south of Beirut were pasting up posters of the Imam when shots were suddenly...
Assad's longevity is all the more remarkable considering that he is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that accounts for only 11% of his nation's population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim. In a sense, it was Assad's religion that put him on the path to power. With few career opportunities available to a non-Sunni, Assad entered the military academy at 22; by 25, he was an air force officer. Around that time, the ambitious Assad became active in the country's Baath Party, which advocates...