常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

claw back

イスラム国の支配域であるイラクにある墓穴に何千人もの遺体が埋めらているということが報告されています。

ISIS Buried Thousands in 72 Mass Graves

Surrounded by smoke and flames, the sound of gunshots echoing around him, the young man crouched in the creek for hours, listening to the men in his family die.

On the other side of the mountain, another survivor peered through binoculars as the handcuffed men of neighboring villages were shot and then buried by a waiting bulldozer. For six days he watched as the extremists filled one grave after another with his friends and relatives.

Between them, the two scenes of horror on Sinjar mountain contain six burial sites and the bodies of more than 100 people, just a small fraction of the mass graves Islamic State extremists have scattered across Iraq and Syria.

In exclusive interviews, photos and research, The Associated Press has documented and mapped 72 of the mass graves, the most comprehensive survey so far, with many more expected to be uncovered as the Islamic State group's territory shrinks. In Syria, AP has obtained locations for 17 mass graves, including one with the bodies of hundreds of members of a single tribe all but exterminated when IS extremists took over their region. For at least 16 of the Iraqi graves, most in territory too dangerous to excavate, officials do not even guess the number of dead. In others, the estimates are based on memories of traumatized survivors, Islamic State propaganda and what can be gleaned from a cursory look at the earth. Still, even the known victims buried are staggering — from 5,200 to more than 15,000.

Sinjar mountain is dotted with mass graves, some in territory clawed back from IS after the group's onslaught against the Yazidi minority in August 2014; others in the deadly no man's land that has yet to be secured.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/buried-thousands-72-mass-graves-ap-finds-41736278

取り上げる表現は"claw back"です。

まず、『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版(大修館)で"claw"を引いてみると、名詞で「(鳥獣の)かぎづめ、つめ足、(カニ、エビなどの)はさみ、かぎづめ型のもの、くぎ抜き」、動詞では「つめでつかむ、ひっ掻く、引き裂く、つかもうとする」などの意味がありました。

"claw back"では「(金、権力)を徐々に取り戻す」や「(交付金)を税金で取り戻す」とありました。

因みに名詞の"claw-back"は「(給付金の)増税による回収」という意味があります。(Akim)