EUP20050817031011 London The Independent (Internet Version-WWW) in English 17 Aug 05

[Report by Rebecca Armstrong: "Jihad: Play the Game"]

Grenades - check. Sniper rifle - check. Prayer mat - check. Gamers may be used to saving the day by taking on alien forces from another universe but a new wave of computer games are more concerned with saving the world from non-believers. With titles like Special Force and Under Siege, these games sound similar to military titles like Medal of Honour that regularly top the UK games chart for best-selling titles. Once people start playing though, it's obvious Special Force and Under Siege are very different both in quality and in content to their mainstream rivals.

Hizballah, a radical Islamic group, spent two years developing Special Force, a PC game designed to compete with games showing Arabs as enemies and Americans as triumphant heroes. Emblazoned across the cover is the invitation to: "Be a partner in the victory. Fight, resist and destroy your enemy in the name of force and victory."

Inspired by actual Hizballah missions, Special Force takes place during operations on Israeli soldiers. Players have to deal with the same conditions as real Hizballah fighters, including weather conditions, mines and the number of enemy - Israeli - troops. During training, players can practise their sniping skills on Israeli political and military figures including the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Mahmoud Rayya, an official from the Hizballah bureau, explained at the game's launch that "this game is resisting the Israeli occupation through the media". The game sold thousands of copies in Lebanon in the first two weeks after its release and has gone on to sell at least 10,000 more since.