It remains unclear, however, how many of these people the Serbs will consider combatants.

The debate over the consequences of Mr. Mohammed's admissions rekindled a larger one, about whether he and other terrorism suspects should be considered criminals or combatants.

The analysts, who emphasized that their figures are far from exact, estimated that there are now 70,000 armed Serbs in the republic, of whom 30,000 can be considered active combatants.

They captured Francs-tireurs partisans who, along with other civilians, were considered unlawful combatants.

Soldiers who are wearing uniforms of the opposing army after the start of combat may be considered illegal combatants and subject to summary execution.

However, if soldiers remove their disguises and put on proper insignia before the start of combat in such an operation, they are considered legal combatants and must be treated as prisoners-of-war if captured.

Put off balance by the controversy, the government on Friday publicly called on the Bush administration to clarify whether captives taken in Afghanistan will be considered prisoners of war or "unlawful combatants" accorded fewer rights.

Once there, they are considered unlawful combatants.

In practice, any military force that operates at least partially out of uniform may be considered unlawful combatants.

Of course, all members of the warring clans themselves were considered combatants.