Crossword Genius

Oppose extremists in tough conflict close to militant (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

thwart

'oppose' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'extremists in tough conflict close to militant' is the wordplay.
'extremists in' means to remove the middle letters.
'conflict' becomes 'war' (war is a kind of conflict).
'close to' says to take the final letters (the close/ending of).
'tough' with its centre taken out is 'th'.
The final letter of 'militant' is 't'.
'th'+'war'+'t'='THWART'

(Other definitions for thwart that I've seen before include "seat for oarsman" , "Frustrate, prevent from doing" , "Defeat" , "Prevent from accomplishing something" , "Oppose successfully" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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