But a Syrian official said Damascus did not wish to move against Palestinian and Iranian-backed militias while Israel still controlled its so-called security zone in southern Lebanon.

In this last army push, which many here regard as too late to make a big difference, Mr. Olmert wants to ensure that the Iranian-backed militia and its stockpiles are at least cleared out of southern Lebanon.

They say the American policies that have empowered Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have been counterproductive to Israel's interests.

The officials add that Syria's backing of the Amal Shiite militia against the Iranian-backed militias is by far the greatest show of Arab firmness yet against Iranian expansionism in Lebanon.

Mr. Dirani, a member of another Iranian-backed militia who had custody of a missing Israeli airman, was seized from his home in Lebanon in 1994.

The muscular posture against the Iranian-backed militia of Ayatollah Hakim is in accordance with recent sharp pronouncements by the Bush administration, which has accused Iran of giving support to leaders of Al Qaeda.

According to Taliban officials, all had been caught driving trucks loaded with Iranian military goods when the Taliban captured Mazar-i-Sharif, which had been the headquarters of an Iranian-backed anti-Taliban militia.

Similar tactics were used more recently to great effect in Iraq by al-Qaeda's Sunni Muslim terrorists and Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militias to instigate sectarian strife.

Some accuse him, a Christian, of splitting Christians in Lebanon into rival camps, further weakening them, while others blame him for abetting Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia.

Neither the Sunni insurgents nor the Iranian-backed Shiite militias seem to fear Iraqi police officers or soldiers.