ARMED WOMEN OF IRAN

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Western experts doubt claims by the N.C.R. that it is funded by the Iranian exile community, contending that Saddam pays for its operations. Most of the N.L.A.'s armor and other equipment, they say, was captured from Iran toward the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that ended in 1988. The Massouds "are simply not a viable alternative to the current regime because of their ties to Iraq," says Eisenstadt. Clawson says the People's Mujahedin's radical-left politics is also out of step. "Their day is past," he says.

But one cannot tell that from the bustle of military activity at the Zahra Rajabi training base in southern Iraq, where volunteers get their basic training. Commander Mehdi Madadi says he has seen a 500% rise in new recruits in the past year. "We are seeing young people come across the border in groups of 15 and 20," he says. "They don't remember the Shah or know much about the People's Mujahedin. They just have no hope and no future."

Mojtaba Shadbash, 23, is one of them. Her brother joined the N.L.A. a year ago, she said, and she was subsequently arrested and harassed by Iranian police. Two months ago, she walked for two days across the mountains to join her brother in the Iraqi desert. Her sole aim: "I want to overthrow the regime." Her passion, and that of her companions in arms, is not enough. But clearly the National Liberation Army will remain a knife in the side of the Tehran government for years to come.

--Reported by Edward Barnes/Al-Ashraf Camp