Lawyers for two of them, who dispute Sergeant Lemus's account, say the soldiers were given an order by a decorated colonel on the day in question to "kill all military-age men" they encountered.

Sending a nation's worth of military-age men into the street without enough to do is rarely a prudent policy.

Rwanda is holding more than 80,000 military-age men in prison on charges that they participated in massacres.

A senior Western diplomat said: "Given the totality of evidence and circumstances, we are very concerned that a Srebrenica-style system of killing of military-age men has or is going on.

Chinese-supplied rice allowed North Vietnam to pull military-age men from the paddies and to impose a universal draft beginning in 1960.

In an appearance on the CBS News program "Face the Nation" on May 16, Mr. Cohen mentioned reports that 100,000 military-age men were missing.

Practice at shooting clubs is a favorite pastime, and an annual shooting course at a hometown range is obligatory for military-age men.

Brown pointed out that in Falluja there is 60 percent unemployment among military-age men.

At several points, young, military-age men were seen grabbing protesting children by the hand to make their way out past the checkpoints.

Most recruiters, though, were much more forceful, some even invading homes and churches to seize military-age men.