Iran views this as a U.S. attempt to basically complete or continue its encirclement of Iran.

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"The rest are now making attempts to break the encirclement and get out of Shali and make their way towards the mountains, " he said.

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But our correspondent says that changed after India started developing the "strategic relationship" with the US, which raised fears of encirclement in the Chinese security establishment.

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The first is Mr Kissinger's insight that Chinese strategists think like players of wei qi or Go, which means that, in the long term, they wish to avoid encirclement.

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He was made a Hero of Russia, the country's highest honorary title, for his actions in bringing his troops out of encirclement during fighting with separatists in Chechnya in 2000.

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His use of various stratagems to deal with the threat of encirclement a very potent threat considering he was outnumbered perhaps three to one, even by conservative estimates are rather remarkable.

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Pakistan fears encirclement by India and its ally.

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Although it is America's ally, Pakistan maintains links with the predominantly ethnic-Pushtun Taliban in Afghanistan, as a hedge against the day America leaves and a way to thwart a perceived Indian plan of strategic encirclement.

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The dominant Los Angeles Times, for instance, now faces an encirclement of MediaNews dailies that range from the Long Beach Press-Telegram in the south, the Pasadena Star-News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune to the east and the Daily News to the north.

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