In a dimly lit, camouflaged room draped with flags of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, a group of men calmly fire rounds at the head of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But no one shoots back.
The room is in an Internet cafe adapted for marketing a computer game made by Hezbollah to reflect battles between the Israeli army and the group, which withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation.
Cafe owner Emad said he placed plastic rifles on the walls and stacked sandbags at the entrance to transform the room into a mock bunker to generate interest in the game. "We wanted to create a military atmosphere to complement the game. Guys like stuff like this," he said.
Eight-year-old Hussein Osman said he liked the game because it featured real fighters and "because it kills Israelis".
"I can be a resistance fighter, even though in real life I don't want to do that," he said.
Washington deems Hezbollah a "terrorist" group and blames it for the 1983 suicide bombings on its Marines barracks and Beirut embassy as well as kidnapping Westerners in the 1975-1990 civil war.
Hezbollah's Internet center created the game, Special Force, in commemoration of the battles of the Shi'ite Muslim group whose attacks helped force Israeli troops out of Lebanon.
RSS