Updated at 4:40 p.m. ET: ISLAMABAD — After a roadside bomb killed at least seven people near a Shiite procession in Pakistan on Saturday, the Pakistan Taliban warned that more attacks were coming.

The Pakistan Taliban called the Agence France-Presse from an undisclosed location to claim responsibility for the attacks. Ehsanullah Ehsan told the AFP that the Taliban had dispatched more than 20 suicide bombers to target Shiite Muslims, the religious minority. 

Four boys were among the dead; another 30 were wounded.

Pakistan suspended phone coverage in cities across the country this weekend, an important one in the Shiite Muslim calendar, after a series of bomb attacks on Shiites were triggered by mobile phones.

Hardline Sunnis have threatened more attacks as the Shiite mourning month of Muharram comes to a climax. More than a dozen people have already been killed this week observing Muharram.

Muharram marks the anniversary of the Battle of Karbala, where the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad and his family members were killed.

Pakistani intelligence officials say extremist groups led by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have intensified their bombings and shootings of Shiites in the hope of triggering conflict that would pave the way for a Sunni theocracy in U.S.-allied Pakistan.

The schism between Sunnis and Shiites developed after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 when his followers could not agree on a successor.

Saturday's attack occurred in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's northwest, a stronghold of al-Qaida-linked Sunni militant groups who regard Shiites as non-Muslims and have stepped up sectarian attacks in a bid to destabilize Pakistan.

The explosion followed a suicide attack that killed 23 people at a Shiite procession, according to the AFP. 

Boy hurled from street to roof
Police said the bomb was set off by a television remote control device because cellphones were not operational.

The explosion was so powerful that it hurled a young boy onto a rooftop from a street, where a man later carried away half of his body, as a policeman with a bomb detector and residents stood near blood stains.

Intelligence information indicates more attacks have been planned for the coming days in the capital city of Islamabad, Karachi and Quetta. Mobile phone service will be suspended for hours in the three cities and dozens of others over the weekend.

In Karachi, more than 5,000 police are expected to patrol the streets during Muharram events over the next two days, with hundreds more on alert.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Will American be next pope? US cardinals a factor
• Analysis: What Gaza crisis taught Israel about Iran
• Egyptian protesters, police clash as Morsi defends wide new powers
• The ghosts of Muranow: A journalist's mission to illuminate Poland's haunted past
• Israeli forces kill Gaza man despite cease-fire

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and

Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET: Explosions hit the Hai al-Wuroud district in northwest Damascus on Tuesday, killing at least 15, Syrian state media and regime foes reported. Also Tuesday, gunmen shot dead the brother of the parliament speaker in the latest rebel attack on a figure associated with the ruling elite.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group monitoring the violence, said at least 40 were wounded in the attack that used three bombs.

Hai al-Wuroud, a hilltop neighborhood inhabited mostly by members of President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, is situated near barracks and housing for elite army units.

Damascus has several hilltop enclaves mostly inhabited by the Alawite, a sect of Shiite Islam that has dominated Syria, which has a Sunni Muslim majority, since the 1960s.

Later Tuesday, a car bomb exploded near a shopping center in northeast Damascus, killing and injuring several people, opposition activists in the capital said. This latest spate of violence came a day after more than 250 people were killed, according to an activist monitoring group.

The bomb went off near Qasioun Mall in the religiously and ethnically mixed area of Ibn al-Nafis, they said.

The opposition said at least 100 more people were killed elsewhere in the civil war.

"Lots of people were hit inside their apartments. Rescue efforts are hampered because electricity was cut off right after the explosion," said Abu Hamza al-Shami.

State television said gunmen had assassinated Mohammed Osama al-Laham, brother of the speaker of parliament, in Damascus's Midan district. No group claimed immediate responsibility.

The United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said in an interview with the newspaper al-Hayat that Syria could "turn into a new Somalia" unless the 19-month-old crisis ends soon, the BBC reported. Brahimi said he fears warlords and militias could come in to fill a void left by a collapsed state, according to the BBC.

Safe exit for Syria's Assad 'could be arranged,' says British prime minister

The Syrian uprising has left more than 32,000 dead since it began with peaceful protests in March 2011.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Tuesday before a visit to Saudi Arabia that a safe exit and possible immunity from prosecution for Assad "could be arranged" if it would end the conflict.

"Done. Anything, anything, to get that man out of the country and to have a safe transition in Syria," Cameron told the Saudi-based Al Arabiya news network in Abu Dhabi when asked about offering Assad safe passage.

Suicide bomb ups death toll in Syria to 269 since Sunday, groups say

"Of course I would favor him facing the full force of international law and justice for what he's done. I am certainly not offering him an exit plan to Britain, but if he wants to leave he could leave, that could be arranged," he said.

It was unclear if Cameron had spoken to other U.N. Security Council members about the idea, which could involve offering Assad immunity from prosecution if he accepted asylum in a third country. Nor was it clear what nation would take him.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Analysis: From Afghanistan to Venezuela, 2012 battle captivates
• Analysis: Despite bloodshed,White House candidates ignore Mexico
• Analysis: US loses patience with Syria opposition group
• Analysis: Suspicion of US rife as Romney, Obama batter China
• Meet Afghan female rapper, colonel who defy the odds
• Analysis: Israel, Iran name checks illustrate America's twin obsessions

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Pakistan Shiite Muslims offer prayers during a funeral for community members killed in an ambush in the northern town of Gilgit on Feb. 29.

GILGIT, Pakistan -- About 20 men dressed as Pakistani soldiers boarded a bus bound for a Muslim festival outside this mountain town and checked the identification cards of the passengers. They singled out 19 Shiites, drew weapons and slaughtered them, most with a bullet to the head.

The shooters weren't soldiers. They were a hit squad linked to the Sunni Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, or LeJ. They had trekked in along a high Himalayan pass that hot August morning to waylay a convoy of pilgrims.

Here and across Pakistan, violent Sunni radicals are on the march against the nation's Shiite minority.

With a few hundred hard-core cadres, the highly secretive LeJ aims to trigger sectarian violence that would pave the way for a Sunni theocracy in U.S.-allied Pakistan, say Pakistan police and intelligence officials. Its immediate goal, they say, is to stoke the intense Sunni-Shiite violence that has pushed countries like Iraq close to civil war.

More than 300 Shiites have been killed in Pakistan so far this year in sectarian conflict, according to human rights groups. The campaign is gathering pace in rural as well as urban areas such as Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city. The Shiites are a big target, accounting for up to 20 percent of this nation of 180 million.

In January, LeJ claimed responsibility for a homemade bomb that exploded in a crowd of Shiites in Punjab province, killing 18 and wounding 30. LeJ's reach extends beyond Pakistan: Late last year, LeJ claimed responsibility for bombings in Afghanistan that killed 59 people, the worst sectarian attacks since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

"No doubt - (LeJ) are the most dangerous group," said Chaudhry Aslam, a top counterterrorism police commando based in Karachi, whose house was blown up by the LeJ. "We will fight them until the last drop of blood."

For an outlawed group accused of fomenting such mayhem, the leader of LeJ is surprisingly easy to find.

Mian Khursheed / Reuters file

Malik Ishaq, leader of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his home in Rahim Yar Khan in southern Punjab province, on Oct. 9.

Malik Ishaq spent 14 years in jail in connection with dozens of murder and terrorism cases. He was released after the charges could not be proved - partly because of witness intimidation, officials say - and showered with rose petals by hundreds of supporters when he left prison in July 2011.

Although Ishaq is one of Pakistan's most feared militants, he enjoys the protection of followers clutching AK-47 assault rifles in the narrow lane outside his home. There, in the town of Rahim Yar Khan in southern Punjab province, Reuters visited him for an interview.

"The state should declare Shiites as non-Muslims on the basis of their beliefs," said Ishaq, calling them the "greatest infidels on Earth." Young supporters with shoulder-length hair in imitation of the Prophet Mohammad hung on every word.

Following the trail
To assess the LeJ threat, Reuters followed the group's trail across Pakistan -- from Ishaq's compound, to Gilgit in the foothills of the Himalayas, recruiting grounds in central Punjab and the backstreets of Karachi on the Arabian Sea coast.

In interviews, police, intelligence officials, clerics and LeJ members described a group that has grown more robust and appears to be operating across a much wider area in Pakistan than just a few years ago. But it had a head start.

The LeJ once enjoyed the open support of the powerful spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence. The ISI used such groups as military proxies in India and Afghanistan and to counter Shiite militant groups.

Since being outlawed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, LeJ has worked with Sunni radical groups al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban in several high-profile strikes. Among them were assaults in 2009 on Pakistan's military headquarters and on Sri Lanka's visiting cricket team. Washington says LeJ was involved in the killing of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Now it is gathering strength anew. The risks are heightened by Pakistan's long-standing role as a battlefield in a proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, which have been competing for influence in Asia and the Middle East since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

That competition has heated up since the United States toppled secularist dictator Saddam Hussein in Iraq and left the country under the control of an Iranian-influenced Shiite government. Intelligence officials say the LeJ is drawing financial support from Saudi donors and other Sunni sources.

"Unfortunately, the state for strategic reasons turned a blind eye to the LeJ for a long time," said a retired army general. "Now we have a situation where it has become Pakistan's Frankenstein."

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who is in charge of internal security, told Reuters that "we always take action" against the LeJ when the group is suspected of murder or terrorism. "We track people and arrest them."

When asked why those arrested are often freed, he said: "Look, my job is to arrest people, not to let them go. We all know who lets them off the hook and why," he said, referring to local politicians and elements of the military who turn a blind eye to their activities or even support them in some cases.

Sacred calling
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose name means Soldiers of Jhangvi (after its founder, Haq Maulana Nawab Jhangvi), isn't the only lethal militant group that once enjoyed patronage from the spy agency.

One is Lashkar-e-Taiba (Soldiers of the Pure), which fights against Indian control in disputed Kashmir. It is blamed for several deadly attacks on Indian soil, including the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, and an audacious raid on India's parliament in December 2001 with another Kashmiri militant group, Jaishi-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad). That raid brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Another is the Pakistani Taliban. Its attack this month on 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai in Swat was only the most recent in a long list of strikes on civilian and military targets, mainly in the unruly tribal area along the Afghan border.

What makes LeJ particularly dangerous, however, is that the group is based in Pakistan's Punjab heartland. And it is not just attacking targets in Pakistan's neighbors, but has also targeted the state, including the 2009 attack on Pakistan's military headquarters.

LeJ was established as an offshoot of another anti-Shiite organization called Sipah-e-Sahaba (Soldiers of Mohammad's Companions).

LeJ believes it has a sacred calling -- to protect the legacy of the companions of the Prophet Mohammad - and it sees Shi'ites as the main threat.

Mahmood Baber, educated in a madrassa, was drawn by LeJ's call to holy war against Shiite infidels. His 16-year career in the movement ended in October, when he and other LeJ members were arrested.

Handcuffed and with a cloth thrown over his head at a Karachi police station, Baber described for Reuters the "great satisfaction" he felt killing 14 Shiite "terrorists" over the years. His voice choked with emotion when he said that for 1,400 years Shiites had insulted the companions of the Prophet.

"Get rid of Shiites. That is our goal. May God help us," he said, before intelligence agents led him away for a fresh round of interrogation.

The schism between Sunnis and Shiites developed after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 when his followers could not agree on a successor. Sunnis recognize the first four caliphs as his rightful successors; the Shiites believe the prophet named his son-in-law, Ali. Emotions over the issue have boiled through modern times and even pushed some countries, including Iraq five years ago, to the brink of civil war.

Demonizing Iran
The LeJ's leader, Ishaq, lives in a house whose gate bears a sign inviting residents of the town to debate whether Shiites are infidels.

These days Ishaq calls himself a leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba, the LeJ parent group. Pakistani officials say he still runs, or at least inspires, LeJ. Ishaq denies any wrongdoing, repeatedly saying: "I've been acquitted." He has indeed been acquitted 34 times on charges of culpable homicide and terrorism.

He does not hide his feelings about Shiites, his voice growing strident as he opened a plastic folder filled with printouts from what he describes as Shi'ite Internet sites.

One contained a photo of a pig, an animal considered by Muslims to be dirty, and is accompanied by an insult to Sunnis. Another alleges the Prophet Mohammad's wife committed adultery -- all proof, he says, that Shiites are blasphemous, and deserve punishment.

"Whoever insults the companions of the Holy Prophet should be given a death sentence," Ishaq declares.

Ishaq and other hardline Sunnis believe that Iran is trying to foment revolution in Pakistan to turn it into a Shi'ite state, though no evidence for that is offered.

The Saudi connection
In the Punjab town of Jhang, LeJ's birthplace, SSP leader Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi describes what he says are Tehran's grand designs. Iranian consular offices and cultural centers, he alleges, are actually a front for its intelligence agencies.

"If Iranian interference continues it will destroy this country," said Ludhianvi in an interview in his home. The state provides him with armed guards, fearful any harm done to him could trigger sectarian bloodletting.

The Iranian embassy in Islamabad, asked for a response to that allegation, issued a statement denouncing sectarian violence.

"What is happening today in the name of sectarianism has nothing to do with Muslims and their ideologies," it said.

Ludhianvi insisted he was just a politician. "I would like to tell you that I am not a murderer, I am not a killer, I am not a terrorist. We are a political party."

After a meal of chicken, curry and spinach, Ludhianvi and his aides stood up to warmly welcome a visitor: Saudi Arabia-based cleric Malik Abdul Haq al-Meqqi.

A Pakistani cleric knowledgeable about Sunni groups described Meqqi as a middleman between Saudi donors and intelligence agencies and the LeJ, the SSP and other groups.

"Of course, Saudi Arabia supports these groups. They want to keep Iranian influence in check in Pakistan, so they pay," the Pakistani cleric said. His account squared with that of a Pakistani intelligence agent, who said jailed militants had confessed that LeJ received Saudi funding.

Saudi cleric Meqqi denied that, and SSP leader Ludhianvi concurred: "We have not taken a penny from the Saudi government," he told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia's alleged financing of Sunni militant groups has been a sore point in Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned in a December 2009 classified diplomatic cable that charities and donors in Saudi Arabia were the "most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide." In the cable, released by Wikileaks, Clinton said it was "an ongoing challenge" to persuade Saudi officials to treat such activity as a strategic priority. She said the groups funded included al-Qaida, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The Saudi embassy in Islamabad and officials in Saudi Arabia were unavailable for comment.

Shiite revenge
Some Shia groups do look to Iran's clerical establishment for spiritual leadership, but insist they have no aims beyond protecting members from Sunni attacks.

In the offices of a Shiite organization in Karachi, images of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini are featured on a wall clock. There, a Pakistani Shiite woman named Shafqat Batool described what happened to her son, a judge, when he left for work on August 30.

Minutes after Sayid Zulfiqar stepped out of the family home in Quetta, she said, witnesses told the family three men on a motorcycle opened fire with Kalashnikov rifles. One of the assailants then grabbed a weapon from Zulfiqar's bleeding driver and pumped more bullets into her son.

It prompted Zulfiqar's family to move to Karachi. "We are not safe anywhere in the country," his mother said. "People are horrified, people can't sleep."

The fear is palpable in Quetta, the mountainous provincial capital of southwestern Baluchistan. LeJ has unleashed an escalating campaign there of suicide bombings and assassinations against ethnic Hazaras - Persian-speaking Shiites who mostly emigrated from Afghanistan and are a small minority of the Shiite population in Pakistan.

At least 100 Hazaras have been killed this year, according to Human Rights Watch, leaving some 500,000 Hazaras fearful of venturing out of their enclaves.

"We are under siege; we can't move anywhere," said Khaliq Hazara, chairman of the Hazara Democratic Party. "Hazaras are being killed and there is nobody to take any action.

In Quetta and Karachi, Shiite leaders say they are urging young men to exercise restraint and buy weapons only for self-defense.

"We are controlling our youth and stopping them from reacting," said Syed Sadiq Raza Taqvi, a Karachi cleric, seated beside a calendar with images of Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

But with each killing, the temptation to take revenge grows.

Shiite extremists have not adopted the kind of attacks favored by LeJ. But they have hunted down members of the SSP.

One such case was an attack survived by Sohaib Nadeem, 27, son of an SSP member. Men he described as "Shiite terrorists backed by Iran" opened fire on the Nadeem family in their car. Nadeem survived nine gunshot wounds but his father and brothers were killed. "The Shiites are our enemies," Nadeem said.

Confederation of militants
When the Taliban and al-Qaida want to reach targets outside their strongholds on the Afghan border, they turn to LeJ to provide intelligence, safe houses or young volunteers eager for martyrdom, police and intelligence officials said.

"Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is the detonator of terrorism in Pakistan," said Karachi Police Superintendent Raja Umer Khattab, who has interrogated more than 100 members. "The Taliban needs Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Al Qaeda needs Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. They are involved in most terrorism cases."

The massacre of Shiite bus passengers outside Gilgit has had a profound impact on this mountaineering hub in the Himalayan foothills. Never before had Sunni extremists asked for identification to single out Shiites and then kill them on such a large scale.

Akhtar Soomro / Reuters

Police officers Jumma Gul, center, Khan Bahadur, right, and Gul Zaman, stand at the spot where bus passengers were gunned down in the Harban Nala area of Pakistan on Feb. 28.

Sunnis and Shiites, who had lived in harmony for decades, now cope with sectarian no-go zones.

"Sunnis can't go to some areas and Shiites can't go to others," lamented Gilgit shopkeeper Muneer Hussain Shah, a Shiite whose brother was killed in a grenade attack.

When violence erupts, text messages circulate rallying one sect or the other. Shops and schools close. Authorities have banned motorcycles to stop drive-by shootings.

Law enforcement itself is a victim of sectarianism in Gilgit, said police chief Usman Zakria. Shi'ite officers are reluctant to investigate crimes committed by Shi'ites, and the same is true of Sunnis.

"They are in disarray," said Zakria. "None of this has happened before."

Additional reporting by Imtiaz Shah in Karachi, Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Islamabad and Matthew Green in Quetta. 

Follow Open Channel from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Zac Baillie / AFP - Getty Images

A Syrian rebel covers a fellow fighter carrying the body of his brother, killed during a battle in the Saif al-Dawla district of Syria's northern city of Aleppo, amid heavy street fighting between opposition and government forces on August 29, 2012.

First, he reprimanded me for not calling enough and hardly visiting. I’ve been away too long. You can’t do that, not to your friends. What’s so difficult about calling? he asked.

I apologized, asked about his children, his health, if he’s having success in quitting smoking, and offered the only excuse I could think of: "I’ve been busy with the Arab Spring."

"The Arab Spring?" he said. "What’s that? There’s no Arab Spring anymore. That’s over. It is now a big struggle for power." 

He may have been acting like an insistent grandmother, but he was right. The Arab Spring is over. The days of the protesters with laptops and BlackBerrys in Tahrir Square are long gone.

Instead, a much bigger struggle is underway, one that goes back centuries that is both a regional battle for dominance and an epic tug of war between Sunnis and Shiites for control of the Middle East and the Prophet Muhammad's legacy.

The front line is now in Syria, where the United Nations says more than 20,000 people have been killed since pro-democracy protests started in March 2011.

But it goes back, at least in very modern history, at least to Iraq — and America shares a large part of the responsibility for reopening this Pandora’s Box.

Roots in Iraq
A major factor in the rise of the present struggle came when American troops invaded Iraq in 2003, thus pitting Sunnis against their rival Shiites, who many Sunnis think are effectively infidels who turned against Islamic leaders about 1,400 years ago and have been on the wrong side of Allah’s path since then.

For decades, Saddam and his Sunni minority had imposed their will on Iraq, carrying on a 14-century tradition of Sunnis controlling Mesopotamia despite a Shiite majority. Not surprisingly, in most Sunni regions there has little appetite for free U.S.-sponsored elections. They knew they would end up being ruled by their enemies.

And that’s what happened. Essentially, the lasting legacy of America’s involvement in Iraq is an Iranian-allied Shiite government that also happens to be one of the most corrupt on the planet. (Iran is the biggest and most powerful Shiite-majority nation.) 

Reuters

Iran's religious breakdown by Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Iran is 89 percent Shiite Muslim and approximately 10 percent Sunni. But the rest of the region is predominately Sunni Muslim. There are more than 1 billion Sunnis worldwide, making up 87-90 percent of the global Muslim population. Click on the map to see a larger version.

The Shiites were, of course, delighted. I remember the moment U.S. troops left their last base in southern Iraq in December 2011.  The Iraqis changed its name as the Americans rolled out the gate. It had been called Camp Adder; the Iraqis renamed it 'the Imam Ali base,' after the patriarch of Shiite Islam.

The Shiites — in both Iraq and Iran — won, and won big.  

President George W. Bush, in his now-rare public appearances and interviews, still refuses to acknowledge he did anything to help Iran. But it doesn’t really matter what he thinks. The 200 million people in the Middle East understand that there is a new reality — and that’s what they are battling about now. 

Iraqi Sunnis are still seething — and sometimes fighting — in their stronghold cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.  They can’t accept what they consider the tragedy that has befallen their community and don’t understand even now why Washington sent troops across the Atlantic and Indian oceans to help Iran expand a buffer zone beyond its borders.

Enter al-Qaida, a radical Sunni group
Back in the Iraq war days, al-Qaida, a radical Sunni group, saw an opportunity to expand. Al-Qaida militants flowed to Iraq to help fellow Sunnis fight Iran, Shiites and the Americans who were propping them up. But al-Qaida got more than it bargained for. The U.S. troops were tougher than al-Qaida expected. American forces learned guerilla tactics in Iraq. They built bigger, stronger vehicles to defeat car bombs and IEDs. U.S. troops, much to al-Qaida surprise and dismay, moved at night, dropped men from helicopters like spiders and blasted militant safe houses into kindling.

Al-Qaida made another mistake too. It misbehaved in Iraq and abused its hosts, fellow Sunni tribesmen. Al-Qaida forgot it was a guest and abandoned its manners. Al-Qaida killed Sunni tribesmen because they weren’t fundamentalist enough. The wild-eyed militants flogged Sunnis in Ramadi and Fallujah for minor infractions like taking off their pants to swim in the Euphrates. It was hardly the behavior of someone who’s claiming to help.

The Americans eventually used al-Qaida’s misbehavior against the group, forming a militia of Sunnis who were fed up with the fanatics, often referred to as the "Sons of Iraq." Al-Qaida lost in Iraq and the Shiite government won. Iran won, too. 

After the Shiites came to power in Baghdad, Iran suddenly had access to Iraq’s holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala. Iran increased tourism and business ties with its new Shiite-controlled neighbor. The majority of passengers now arriving and departing from Baghdad International Airport are from Iran.

Photo Blog: Portraits from the front line: Syrian rebels pose in Aleppo

Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah
Of course, it isn’t tourism that is on the minds of concerned observers of the Middle East. Rather, it is another Shiite government — just to the northwest of Iraq —the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

In fact, the Assad family isn’t actually Shiite, but Alawite, a secretive Shiite-linked offshoot that makes up just about 13 percent of the population. There’s also a sizable Christian community. Iran has effectively adopted the Alawites into the family by forging a long-standing alliance with Assad and — before him — his father, Hafez, who ruled Syria from 1971-1990.   

Reuters

A breakdown of religious groups in Syria. Approximately 70 percent of Syria's population is Sunni Muslim. About 3 percent are Shiite, but another 12.8 percent are Alawite, a Shiite offshoot that President Bashar al-Assad follows. Click on the map to see a larger version.

And, moving further west from Syria, there’s Lebanon. Lebanon is a mixed basket if there ever was one. It’s Sunni in the north, Christian in the middle and Shiite in the south, with each making up about a third of the population. As any Lebanese person will tell you, it’s a volatile mix that has produced a lively culture, fantastic food, attractive people — and recurring cycles of civil war. 

Topping the heap in Lebanon are the Shiites, emboldened by their powerful and skilled militia, Hezbollah. Hezbollah is heavily armed and has thousands of rockets pointed at Israel. The weapons mostly come from Iran through Syria or from Syria itself. In addition, Hezbollah runs a powerful social network. It can collapse the Lebanese government when it chooses.  

France sends aid, cash to rebel-held Syrian cities, source says

So, there we have it. The previously isolated Shiite regime in Iran is emboldened by the emergence of a Shiite-dominated government in Iraq. In reaction, the Sunni world becomes concerned about the upstart Shiite powers, complete with their considerable oil resources and weaponry.

The region, already a tinderbox, becomes primed for a power struggle.

At the same time, there is the matter of religious pride and a sense of being in the right. In the Muslim world, the Sunnis are the big players. There are more than 1 billion Sunnis worldwide — making up 87-90 percent of the world’s total Muslim population, according to the Pew Research Center. By comparison, Shiites are a relatively small group, there are just about 150-200 million Shiites in the world, with about 75 percent living in just four countries: Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and India, according to Pew. 

For the world’s Sunni Muslims, there is a certain confidence, perhaps even arrogance, that comes with having a billion friends. 

Arab Spring shake-up
At first, the current unrest was unrelated to the Sunni-Shiite divide. The first eruption came in Tunisia, which exploded in protests in December 2010. Then came Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.

The region’s dictators were caught off guard by student demonstrators who had mobile communications that government security forces couldn’t track or monitor. The students could organize flash mobs. They could communicate directly with hundreds of millions of supporters though social media. 

The Arab regimes in 2011 in many ways were legacies of Israel’s victories in 1948 and 1967. Faced with the catastrophic defeats, military strongmen grew in power. Over time they become corrupt. By 2011, most Arab governments were brutal, uncreative and thoroughly uninspiring.

In Tunisia, lawyers, students and women’s groups protested in because of the country’s secret prisons and because the former president’s wife was taking a cut of nearly everyone’s business.  

The Egyptian regime was similarly ossified and out of touch. Hosni Mubarak had been an effective president in his early years and relatively popular. But by the time protests began in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, he was 82 years old, his military cohorts and family had become increasingly corrupt, he had been president for nearly three decades, and he was insistent that his bland son take over from him.

The Arab Spring put the Middle East back in flux — and, encapsulated by the current situation in Syria — put religious divides back in the spotlight.

The rise of religious tensions started in Egypt, where the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood — a Sunni organization — mobilized and easily hijacked the 2011 revolution started by liberals, anarchists, socialists, students, artists and techno-nerds who were joined by millions of the unemployed and disenfranchised. Sunni Islamists, albeit moderate, took over in Tunisia, too.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

After months of protests and violent crackdowns, a look back at the violence that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

But it is Syria that has become the epicenter of the historic battle between Sunnis and Shiites. And Lebanon will probably follow.

I spoke with a rebel in Syria about a month ago who explained the religious calculation.

"We lost Iraq to the Shiites and Iran. We’re going to take Syria for us," he said. 

Nearly all of the rebels in Syria are Sunnis and the fighting in Syria remains almost exclusively in Sunni areas. Alawite areas remain generally supportive of the Assad regime and therefore haven’t been attacked by the central government. The worst massacres have taken place in Sunni villages that are surrounded by Alawite towns.

The rebels claim the Alawites want to drive out Sunnis from their areas to make pure Alawite blocks for self-defense in case they lose the war and are hunted. Although the rebels say they want to create a Sunni-led government, which they promise will be open and democratic, this isn’t Tahrir Square anymore.  It’s not even close.

Iran-Syria alliance
The Syrian government has long found Iran and Hezbollah to be useful allies. Iran is technologically advanced and offers a big market for Syrian goods. Hezbollah is a sword Damascus can wave over Israel's head, and a way to maintain influence in Lebanon, which Syria claims (with some reason) was historically part of Syria before the horribly planned British and French division of the Middle East during and after World War I.

U.S. officials: Iran supplying Syrian military via Iraqi airspace

But war changes the dynamics between allies.  As Assad’s grip on power weakens, Iran and Hezbollah’s position in Syria grows stronger. The tail is starting to wag the dog. Iranian and Hezbollah advisers are becoming increasingly dominant in Syria.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke out publicly about Iran’s increasing presence in Syria last month.  

"There’s now an indication that they’re trying to develop or trying to train a militia within Syria to be able to fight on behalf of the regime," Panetta said at a Pentagon news briefing. "So we are seeing a growing presence by Iran and that is of deep concern to us."

In Syria, I saw evidence of Hezbollah’s influence at an army outpost that the rebels had just taken over. Rebels claimed there were 20 Hezbollah fighters in the outpost. They said that they occupied their own room and fought to the death. I saw boxes of unpacked Hezbollah flags.

It’s no longer a situation where Hezbollah is just providing arms and intelligence, but appears to have mobilized and is fighting alongside Syrian forces.

Youssef Boudlal / Reuters

Free Syrian Army fighters from Qadissiya Brigade detain two Syrian army soldiers in the El Amriyeh neighbourhood of Syria's northwestern city of Aleppo in Sept. 4, 2012.

And al-Qaida is also trying to make up for lost time. Its leader is dead and Afghanistan and Pakistan aren’t as safe as they used to be. Even Yemen is unsafe with increasing American drone strikes. Al-Qaida trying to do in Syria what it failed to accomplish in Iraq.  Al-Qaida has learned from its Iraq’s experience. Sensing an opening, al-Qaida fighters are going into Syria offering money and arms to the rebels, their Sunni brothers.

They are going in politely, or at least as politely as al-Qaida can be. They are offering rebels cash with no strings attached, at first.  Initial payments tend to be small, around $5,000. It is tiny sum in a war zone, but enough to give strapped rebel units a taste of what’s to come. They also have RPGs, the weapon rebel commanders seem to value above all others. 

After taking a few payments, according to rebels who’ve seen this process, al-Qaida fighters — from Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Chechnya and other countries — ask that the rebels receive some of their men. An increasingly number of rebels commanders are taking the deal, even though they worry what al-Qaida could ask for in the future. 

They reason that it’s better to take the support than die with nothing. Without American troops to worry about — not even drones —Syria could prove to be a far better base for al-Qaida than Iraq ever was.

What’s next?
What happens if Washington continues to watch from afar?

Well, Syria is likely to become an even bigger battleground for a proxy war between Hezbollah, Sunni rebels, government troops, Iran and al-Qaida. And once Syria collapses — or even before — Lebanon could ignite as well. 

My Iraqi friend was right. The Arab Spring no longer exists.  

More world stories from NBC News:

• Smoking ban leaves Lebanese fuming
• London 2012's legacy under spotlight as end nears
• Car crash politics: Laws don't touch rich in Thailand
• I planted what?! Farmer mistakenly grows dope
• Afghan soldiers detained over 'links with insurgents'
• Couple held hostage by pirates to set sail again

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Bilal Hussein / AP

Hezbollah supporters wave Hezbollah flags, Syrian flags with a picture of Syrian President Bashar Assad (R) and pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a rally marking the sixth anniversary of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war on July 18.

MLEETA, Lebanon – On a hill a short drive from Lebanon’s border with Israel, bright yellow and green flags lead to a museum whose theater shows footage of troops training or in combat against the backdrop of rousing music and speeches.

Visitors explore a bunker cut into the side of the mountain and once used as a war room, examine some of the weapons picked up over three decades of conflict, and survey a map of its southern neighbor Israel complete with coordinates -- all potential targets in a next war.

This museum, which guides say has already welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors, is a monument to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the powerful Iran and Syria-backed Shiite militia classified as a terrorist group by the United States.

As the stream of museum-goers shows, local support for Hezbollah holding firm, and by extension, the group’s followers remain loyal to the government of President Bashar Assad. This support remains despite Damascus’ bloody 18-month crackdown, which has sparked accusations of war crimes, on a rebellion sparked by Arab Spring movements sweeping the region

The reason for this steadfastness is simple – Syria’s continued support of Hezbollah in its struggle against  arch-enemy Israel.

“In 2006, we saw our homes destroyed and relatives killed,” Hezbollah supporter Ali Fayed said, referring to the month-long war with Israel that claimed an estimated 1,300 Lebanese lives. Around 160 Israelis were also killed during the conflict. 

Over a cup of strong Turkish coffee in the nearby village of Tibnin, Fayed said his support for the militia – and Syria – was the result of the mistreatment of his fellow Lebanese by Israeli soldiers during the 22-year occupation of Lebanese territory before withdrawing in 2000.

Then war broke out in 2006. Despite the devastation wrought throughout Lebanon during the conflict, Hezbollah, with Syrian arms and support, managed to halt the advances of the most powerful army in the region. 

The war garnered Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, widespread respect across the Arab World. Flags adorned with Hezbollah’s logo -- an arm holding an assault rifle, extending from the party’s name in green Arabic letters against a yellow background -- flies across the region and Nasrallah is now a household name.

NBC's Richard Engel answers your questions about Syria

The war solidified Hezbollah loyalists’ support for Syria and, when asked for his views on the uprising there, Fayed took a firm position.

Anwar Amro / AFP - Getty Images

Men raise their fists as they listen to a speech via videolink by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday. Nasrallah warned that the militia would make lives of Israelis

“Assad helped us in our fight against the Israelis. Those who are fighting against him want to destroy the resistance,” Fayed said, “But the resistance (against Israel) will prevail.”

The links between Hezbollah and Syria were stressed emphatically in July during a speech by Nasrallah who defended his support for the Assad regime. 

Russia warns Obama against 'violation' of law over Syria

He highlighted how Syria had been an ally against Israel, supplying Hezbollah and the Palestinian militia Hamas with weapons used during the recent wars with Israel. 

“The Syrian leadership was risking its interests and existence in order for the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine to be strong. Show me one other Arab regime that does the same,” Nasrallah declared.

“Bashar [Assad] is a good man,” said Louay Hashem, a taxi driver from the southern town of Bint Jbeil. “The people who are causing trouble in the country are the terrorists. They are sponsored by Qatar and Saudi Arabia who want to take over the country for their own interests.”

These are views repeated time and again by Hezbollah supporters, and follow the narrative of news outlets such as Al Manar, a television station affiliated with the party.

“The resistance (to Israel) is the priority for the party,” explained Nicholas Blanford, a Hezbollah expert and author of Warriors of God: Inside Hezbollah's Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel.

Clashes over Syrian conflict in Lebanon leave ten dead

“The Assad regime forms part of the axis of resistance [together with Hezbollah and Iran] and its demise would be a significant blow to the axis,” he added.

Lefteris Pitarakis / AP

A man walks past a destroyed building after it was hit by missiles from Israeli warplanes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 7, 2006.

According to Blanford, steadfast support by Hezbollah members for the party’s position on Syria is unsurprising considering the fact that the conflict is increasingly being seen as a regional battleground, with Hezbollah and Iran supporting the regime while Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf States back the rebels.

Further afield, Russia and China have repeatedly vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions that Western and some Arab countries had hoped would pile pressure on Assad to end the conflict.

Fouad, a resident of Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold of Dahiyeh, who asked for his full name to be withheld, described how Syria has always been a dependable ally in the group’s conflict with Israel “unlike other traitor nations [in the region] that claim to support the resistance but in reality do not.”

Moreover, Fouad stressed the importance of Syria as a Shiite-friendly ally in a region dominated by Sunni governments.

According to Ali Wehbe, a mechanical engineering student and Hezbollah loyalist, the group supports calls by the Syrian people for regime reform, but feels that the conflict has been exploited by Western countries, Turkey and Gulf States to pursue their own agendas. 

Syrian violence spills into neighboring Lebanon

Crucially, if Assad falls many believe a key pillar in the war against Israel will disappear.

So the methods employed by the Assad regime were harsh, but understandable, Wehbe said.

“Just as the Allies had to shell Germany to rid it of Hitler and his Nazi ideology [in World War II], the methods employed by the Assad regime are a tragic but necessary evil,” he said.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Ex-Israeli intelligence chief speaks out on Iran
• 'Bad manners' but 'not rape': Assange ally sparks storm
• Trayvon Martin case: How might it be treated abroad?
• Can Chinese eye exercises help prevent myopia?
• Q&A: NBC's Richard Engel answers questions about Syria
• Video: Poaching surge threatens survival of rhinos
• Reports: Olympic sprinter drowned when migrant boat sank

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

NEW YORK -- U.S. authorities said on Monday that they had seized $150 million from a Lebanese bank suspected of being at the heart of international money-laundering schemes linked to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

In February 2011, the U.S. Treasury department designated the Lebanese Canadian Bank as a "primary money-laundering concern." The privately owned bank was subsequently merged with the Lebanese subsidiary of Societe Generale.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration accused bank officials of knowingly participating in a scheme in which money from various individuals and companies in Beirut was sent from Lebanon to purchase used cars in the United States. The cars were then sold in West Africa, and Hezbollah-linked groups would help smuggle the proceeds into Lebanon, authorities said.

Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamist guerrilla and political movement founded with Iran's help after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

Report: HSBC allowed money laundering that likely funded terror, drugs

Washington considers Hezbollah to be a terrorist group. U.S. officials say that it has become increasingly involved in the drug trade, facilitating the distribution and sale of cocaine in West Africa.

The money seized was held in corresponding accounts at five different banks in the United States, including Citibank and London-based bank Standard Chartered. The five banks have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Standard Chartered, NY regulator reach $340M settlement over Iran-linked transactions

An attorney for the Lebanese Canadian Bank did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Wife of disgraced Chinese leader gets death sentence with reprieve
• Russian top clerics forgive Pussy Riot, ask for mercy
• With wife's conviction, what is next for China's Bo Xilai?
• Assange in balcony appeal: Release Bradley Manning
• Czech police accuse man of plotting Norway-like copycat terrorist attack
• Government minister among 32 killed as Sudanese helicopter crashes into mountain
• Video: Chaos follows Syrian airstrikes
• Tropical Storm Helene slams Mexico; Hurricane Gordon heads for Azores

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook