Backed by members of a political party headed by the Bosnian president, Alija Izetbegovic, the Islamic fighters - who call themselves Mojahedin - are establishing themselves in a broad swath of central Bosnia, particularly in villages around the cities of Travnik, Zenica, Zavidovici and Kankanj, Bosnian officials said.
Most of the fighters, who came to Bosnia during the war, are Iranian but there are also Pakistanis , and Arabs, the official said.
The Islamic fighters act as a kind of paramilitary guard for Mr. Izebegovic's Muslim and increasingly nationalist Party of Democratic Action. Sources said they are particularly close to Semsudin Mehmedovic, the main Bosnian police official in the region and an influential hardliner in Mr. Izetbegovic's party.
Mr. Mehmedovic has nurtured and protected these men as part of a plan to create a reserve force to terrorise potential political opponents, to harass Serbs and Croats, and to pressurise Muslims who might not support Mr. Izebegovic, local officials said.
On June 26, the US said that the Islamic fighters had either left Bosnia or had been removed from the government's army and security services. But officials in central Bosnia said many had simply moved over to the police.
Some of the militants plan to remain permanently and now have Bosnian citizenship, which up to a hundred have obtained by marrying local women. In a few cases, the women were forced into marriage while officials looked the other way, according to human rights workers.
But ordinary Bosnians appear to be fed up with the lawlessness of the Islamic militants, as a case in the small village of Tevtovo illustrates.
Fahrudin Masinovic is a steel worker. He and his wife, Kasema, have raised two daughters, Eldina and Alina. When war erupted in Bosnia, Mr Masinovic took up his gun and fought for four years. When the war ended, he returned to his job and prayed for better times.
But on June 21 Eldina, aged 15, was kidnapped as she was coming home from school. It was part of a plot to marry her to an Islamic fighter. For two days foreigners, working with their Bosnian allies, drugged her and held her captive, the family and local police officials said.
Eldina's sister, Alina, spotted her sister's green shoes as the captors attempted to smuggle Eldina, cloaked head-to-ankle in a black chador, out of the area and her captors let her go. But they returned to the village later, beat up Mr. Masinovic and his brother and shot at his house as children played inside.
Local police tried to help Mr. Masinovic but it was obvious that the alleged kidnappers had a friend in the provincial police chief, Mr Mehmedovic, in nearby Zenica. Despite charges of kidnapping and attempted murder, they were released and remain free.
The turmoil changed Mr. Masinovic. Unlike dozens of other Mojahedin victims, Mr. Masinovic fought back, granting television interviews and talking to local reporters.
The sources also claimed a unit of the Bosnian army called the 7th Muslim Brigade, is receiving
training by Iran, modelled on that of the Iranian-backed Hizbullah in Lebanon.
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