Once a relaxed riverside getaway, Basra has slipped under the rule of fundamentalist Shiite militias and political parties - many with strong ties to Iran - that enforce strict Islamic mores.

The Taliban, a fundamentalist Muslim militia that has been seeking international recognition as Afghanistan's government, has gone to great lengths to distance itself from the hijackers.

Iran's chosen instrument has been the Shiite fundamentalist militias, including those thought to hold American hostages.

A spokesman for the Party of God, a Shiite Muslim fundamentalist militia, said, "The planes fired devastating rockets on our bases."

Most strikingly, these men blame their fellow Muslims - both government soldiers and fundamentalist militias - for the ills of their native country, rather than Americans or Israelis.

In the south, fundamentalist Shiite militias enforce their own version of Islamic mores with the full support of local governmental authorities.

During the anti-Soviet jihad of the 1980s, Iranian Revolutionary Guards financed and trained fundamentalist Shiite militias, as well as Sunni fighters.

Security officials said the truce arrangements for the southern suburbs of Beirut made no mention of the Western hostages who are believed to be held there by Shiite extremists affiliated with the fundamentalist militia.

Russia must now explain how its weapons ended up in the hands of an Islamist fundamentalist militia.

He initially supported the Taliban, the fundamentalist Islamic militia that took over in the late 1990's, believing they could restore order, before eventually turning against them.