[New York Times] Robert F. Worth - On a Bekaa Valley playing field, hundreds of young men wearing uniforms and kerchiefs bear aloft the distinctive yellow banner of Hizbullah, the militant Shiite movement. Each of them wears a tiny picture of Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran on his chest. "You are our leader!" the boys chant in unison, as a Hizbullah official walks to a podium. "We are your men!" This is the vanguard of Hizbullah's youth movement, the Mahdi Scouts. Some of the graduates will go on to join Hizbullah's army. Shiite religious schools, in which Hizbullah exercises a dominant influence, have grown over the past two decades from a mere handful into a major national network.
2008-11-21 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive