Word: sunni
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...towards democracy, Rumsfeld argued. The idea of a partial election was quickly challenged by other U.S. officials, and by the Iraqi electoral commission. The problem it raises is not confined to a couple of towns, but potentially to a whole ethnic group; the security situation in much of the Sunni heartland is perilous right now, and it will be some of these areas that would be passed over in a partial vote. With the Sunni Arabs already confronting the prospect that Iraqi democracy will transform them from a ruling elite into a 15-20 percent minority, the effect of excluding...
...plans to address the security situation by launching an offensive in December, between the U.S. election and the Iraqi one, to break the grip of insurgents on some of the population centers in the Sunni triangle. But as Fallujah and Najaf have previously shown, frontal assaults on population centers tend to produce a furious backlash in the Iraqi public, even when Iraqi troops are used on the frontlines. Keeping to the January deadline would require conducting the election campaign amid bloody battles in some Iraqi towns, whose political effect would likely to be to radicalize the views of the civilian...
...commanders. The U.S. says it won't tolerate insurgent control over wide swaths of territory. A strategy aimed at denying the rebels safe haven in towns and cities under their control and installing competent local administrations is under way in Shi'ite areas south of Baghdad. The northern Sunni stronghold of Samarra is being targeted in a similar push, with U.S. troops ousting fighters and returning a civil administration. But in nogo zones like Fallujah, enlisting the help of rebels willing to part ways with al-Zarqawi may be the only way the U.S. can avoid bloody battles down...
...obtained by TIME purportedly records the voice of al-Zarqawi describing U.S. forces as "oppressors" and "doglike aliens" and criticizing the Western media for denigrating the will and character of Muslims. But the target of al-Zarqawi's harshest criticism is an erstwhile ally: Harith al-Dhari, an Iraqi Sunni Muslim leader and chairman of the powerful Association of Muslim Scholars. U.S. intelligence suspects al-Dhari of helping fund and organize elements of the insurgency. But al-Dhari has criticized al-Zarqawi's practice of decapitating hostages. On the tape, al-Zarqawi calls al-Dhari a coward "who accepted humiliation...
...Allawi's chances of making a good showing, although Sistani's having none of it. He views such a plan as an attempt to manipulate the election, and has warned he will call for a boycott if it goes ahead. Given the fact that the most influential body of Sunni clerics has already signaled its own intention to boycott, an election opposed by Sistani would almost certainly fail. The immediate impact of Sistani's rejection will likely be to persuade the major Shiite religious parties in Allawi's government, the Dawa Party and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution...