But the Kurds say that more strategic issues remain, namely the administrative status of the oil city of Kirkuk, the fate of Kurdish returnees there and the status of the pesh merga, the formidable Kurdish militia.

He also commands the Mahdi Army, a formidable militia.

Beginning 2004, eleven of these courts folded into an umbrella organization, the Islamic Courts Union, which fielded a formidable militia.

I dont need state support to form own foreign policy so I think I'll attack the Swiss with my formidable militia of privateers and soldiers of fortune.

Mr. Salih said the Kurds also wanted to keep their formidable militia, the pesh merga, as an intact fighting force to guard the region.

Likewise, the Shiites have chafed at demands by Kurdish leaders that the Kurds retain broad autonomous powers, including maintaining their formidable militia and controlling the vast oil fields around the northern city of Kirkuk.

Iraqi Kurdistan maintains a formidable militia that guards its borders.

Both men have formidable militias.

Both Mr. Sadr and the Supreme Council have formidable militias that have clashed in open street battles.

American and Iraqi soldiers have been battling cells of the Mahdi Army, a formidable Shiite militia, in Diwaniya since Friday.