(a.) Acting for reward; serving for pay; paid; hired; hireling; venal; as, mercenary soldiers.
(a.) Hence: Moved by considerations of pay or profit; greedy of gain; sordid; selfish.
(n.) One who is hired; a hireling; especially, a soldier hired into foreign service.
Example Sentences:
(1) Donald Trump’s campaign chairman took a “mercenary” approach to lobbying the US government on behalf of international clients accused of killings, rapes and other atrocities, according to one of his former colleagues.
(2) Other South African reports have suggested the mercenaries were paid $15,000 each.
(3) Deplores the continuing flows of mercenaries into the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and calls upon all Member States to comply strictly with their obligations under paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011) to prevent the provision of armed mercenary personnel to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Ban on flights 17.
(4) Two of his top aides, Conor Cruise O'Brien and George Ivan Smith, both became convinced that the secretary general had been shot down by mercenaries working for European industrialists in Katanga.
(5) The CAR's ousted president, Francois Bozize, a Christian, fled the capital in March as the Seleka, including mercenaries from Chad and Sudan, overran the city.
(6) And he kept his mercenaries and tortured people inside these walls," said Tarek Saleh, a 25-year-old revolutionary.
(7) Unclothed female bodies offer a route up the ladder, just as armed male bodies do for the mercenary "sellswords", who seek their fortune by fighting.
(8) Allies can now expect to pay for their security umbrella, as the US military effectively turns into a mercenary force.
(9) There have been further protests in Iran in support of the mainly Shia Bahraini opposition, and Tehran recently warned Pakistan against sending any more "mercenaries" to join the crackdown.
(10) Yet some have dismissed the vote as irrelevant to Gaddafi and his remaining commanders, or argued that the resolution itself prevents any investigation into non-Libyan "mercenaries" who some allege have been involved in the killings.
(11) They say 10 generals who led the rebellion came from Chad, although they describe them as mercenaries rather than Chadian army officers.
(12) Ocampo suggested Saif could be travelling with the protection of mercenaries who are preparing to fly him to an unidentified African state that does not co-operate with the ICC and would be unlikely to extradite him.
(13) Bahrainis often complain that the riot police and special forces do not speak the local dialect, or in the case of Baluchis from Pakistan, do not speak Arabic at all and are reviled as mercenaries.
(14) In a statement on Friday, Russia's defence ministry said the Ukrainian military operation was launching rocket strikes on protesters, accusing it of employing ultra-nationalists from the group Right Sector and “English-speaking foreigners” it suggested were American mercenaries.
(15) Oh, and football clubs – two of them contesting the Champions League final in London next week – built on youth policy, supporter ownership and long-term strategy, not mercenary millionaires, foreign oligarchs and instant gratification.
(16) Later the kidnappers were described as "Chechen mercenaries" fighting with Jabhat al-Nusra, an extreme Islamist group that has links with al-Qaida.
(17) Fox, speaking on the steps of the Pentagon after meeting Gates, said: "We have seen significant progress made in the last 72 hours with Gaddafi's forces losing their grip on Misrata and we have received reports of under-age soldiers and foreign mercenaries being captured – this underlines the regimes inability to rely on its own security forces.
(18) The secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld , focused on finding a political solution for the first few months, but by September, he and his aides were convinced that western interests and mercenaries in Katanga were preventing a settlement, and authorised a UN military offensive there, codenamed Operation Morthor.
(19) It is thought the people in the portraits were the direct descendents of the original settlers in the Fayum, who were Greek mercenary soldiers who fought for the Ptolomies.
(20) Janjaweed forces that committed genocide in Darfur were frequently linked to Gaddafi: many had once been Islamic Legion members, the rag-tag mercenary army he had created to fulfil his vision of a pan-Arabic band across north Africa.
Militia
Definition:
(n.) In the widest sense, the whole military force of a nation, including both those engaged in military service as a business, and those competent and available for such service; specifically, the body of citizens enrolled for military instruction and discipline, but not subject to be called into actual service except in emergencies.
(n.) Military service; warfare.
Example Sentences:
(1) A spokesman for the UNHCR said that while there were many agencies working in Walungu, they had "minimal presence" in villages close to areas still occupied by Hutu militias known as FDLR.
(2) Rebels have accused regional powers of becoming involved in the fighting, including Angola and Zimbabwe, while the government believes Rwanda has been aiding the militias.
(3) Iraqi police have also executed detainees in Tal Afar and government-allied militias opened fire on a mosque in the Khanaqin district northeast of Baghdad killing 73 men and boys, Pansieri said.
(4) Some prominent US militia leaders are distancing themselves from the armed occupation, which is a protest against Monday’s incarceration of two local ranchers, father and son Dwight and Steven Hammond.
(5) Since Yemeni militia backed by Saudi airstrikes retook the port city from Houthi rebels in July last year , Aden was officially back in government control but largely dependent on other countries for its security.
(6) I need to provide services, bring employment and gradually I will take the youth out of the militias.” Where are the world's most war-damaged cities?
(7) Monuc was not able to prevent the siege of Bukavu by rebel commanders in 2004 or to counter threats posed by the Rwandan FDLR militia or Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the Congolese People (CNDP) rebellion.
(8) The Hashd al-Shaabi, a conglomerate of primarily Shia militias that has played a key role in ousting Isis from cities such as Tikrit, appeared to take a backseat in the liberation of Ramadi, ceding the task primarily to the Iraqi elite counter-terrorism force, local police, the Iraqi army and a small group of Sunni tribesmen, backed by US-led airstrikes.
(9) It was these very interahamwe who imposed themselves on the Congolese people, later reinvented as a militia called the FDLR (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda).
(10) The aim was to supplant the informal militias, known as the " shabiha ", who were often accused of massacres, with a more disciplined and better armed force.
(11) Inside the Islamic State ‘capital’: no end in sight to its grim rule Read more The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia and an alliance of rebels known as the “Euphrates Volcano” – backed US-led coalition air strikes – have seized swaths of territory from Isis, including the strategic border town of Tal Abyad .
(12) Meanwhile, rebel-held eastern Aleppo has been overrun by pro-regime forces led by Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian-led Shia militias supported by Russian and Syrian regime aerial bombardment.
(13) Nevertheless, Ansar al-Sharia and other Islamist militia have bases elsewhere in eastern Libya, notably around the coastal city of Derna, known across the region as a major recruitment centre for fighters who joined the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
(14) The French president, François Hollande, flew into the Central African Republic on Tuesday evening following an announcement earlier confirming the deaths of two French soldiers in clashes with militia forces they had ordered to disarm – the first losses in the French campaign in its former colony.
(15) Even if Morgan is caught, people fear that his powerful backers in the army will find another militia to continue poaching and stealing gold.
(16) The militia leaders had said they planned to speak directly with residents and explain their plans to leave the federal land.
(17) 4.16pm BST Pro-Russian militia members in Slavyansk are obligingly taking part in souvenir photo sessions with appreciative locals (note: not all the locals are appreciative).
(18) Local Tuareg militia leaders said on Monday they had taken control of Kidal after the abrupt departure of the Islamist fighters who ran the town.
(19) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yemen government ground forces and Saudi-led air strikes attack Houthi militias The blockade – which is also being enforced in the air and on land – has choked a fragile economy already staggering under the impact of a six-month civil conflict pitting Yemeni forces loyal to the President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, now exiled in Riyadh, against Houthi rebels allied to his predecessor and rival, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
(20) If an agreement were to materialise – which would have been unthinkable a month ago – it could produce a solid unity government able to take the necessary bold decisions to crack down on the militias and renew major public infrastructure projects.