31.  A senior military official said earlier that American Special Forces soldiers had been operating inside Afghanistan to support armed groups opposing the Taliban there.

32.  A young army officer and at least three other Israelis were reported on Monday to have been arrested on suspicion of organizing an armed group to attack Palestinians.

33.  But any immediate breakthrough seemed remote because the two main armed groups did not attend.

34.  But it is raising a mailed fist to the new armed Marxist group EPR, which operates in the southern and central regions of Mexico.

35.  But the Mexican armed forces increased their patrols in the region in the last few months in response to reports of armed groups moving in the highlands.

36.  But this is a campus increasingly under siege by armed groups of both the right and left.

37.  But this is the first time that both armed groups have become deeply involved in a presidential contest.

38.  Clashes between Georgian armed groups and Abkhaz fighters in Gali continued this week despite a cease-fire agreement on Monday.

39.  ETA is an armed group that has committed widely denounced acts of political violence.

40.  Even under cover, a SWAT approach to a heavily armed group harboring innocents runs counter to every notion of hostage rescue.