In societies more used to such violence, the incidents might have seemed sadly familiar.

For Kurds, it was a sadly familiar experience.

I hadn't been back to the Sanders crime scene in several months, but it was all sadly familiar.

Otherwise, the operation has been a dance whose steps are sadly familiar.

In the months since his death, a sadly familiar thing has happened, too.

As we said, this is a sadly familiar tale.

Sweeping potential demonstrators away from international visitors is a sadly familiar Chinese practice.

After a white police officer here fatally shot a black man late last month, the aftermath followed in many ways a sadly familiar refrain.

Your father's case, I can tell you only a little about it, but it is a sadly familiar story.

These are sadly familiar routes for arms sales by former Soviet states and satellites.