Here, other sources saying the same thing as the Iraqi general, that volunteers are coming into Iraq from various countries to fight the US/UK & die as martyrs.
washtimes.com
Arab volunteers join Iraq battle
By Abdel Mawla Khaled
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
SIDON, Lebanon, March 29 (UPI) -- Dozens of Palestinians from refugee camps in south Lebanon have headed to Iraq to battle coalition forces, a Palestinian source said Saturday.
Lebanese security services also reported that several other Lebanese and Egyptian volunteers, mostly members of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, have traveled to Iraq in recent days.
A witness at the Syrian al-Tanaf border crossing with Iraq confirmed to United Press International earlier this week that "buses carrying volunteers from Syria and other Arab nationalities," including Lebanese, Sudanese and Algerians, have crossed into Iraq since the war started on March 20.
The Palestinian source told United Press International that in the past few days "tens" of Palestinians, most in their late-20s, have left their south Lebanon shantytowns and crossed the Syrian border into Iraq. They volunteered to fight the coalition forces "driven by national sentiments and not by any financial temptation," the man said, asking to remain anonymous.
Meanwhile, the al-Tanaf border, where Syrian authorities have erected some 300 tents to receive Iraqi refugees, were vacant Saturday.
"There is not a single (Iraqi) refugee," said a Syrian border officer. "Those who are going to Iraq, mostly Iraqis and from various Arab nationalities, outnumber those who are coming."
Another officer denied knowledge of reports indicating that hundreds of volunteers crossed into Iraq to fight the U.S. and British forces.
"Any citizen with proper identification and travel documents can cross normally because the border is open," he said, adding between 500-700 travelers, mostly Iraqis, cross the border into Iraq every day.
A Lebanese couple reached al-Tanaf on Friday to look for their only child. Wael Sabah, a 19-year-old university student, left a letter to his parents in Beirut telling them he was heading to Iraq along with four of his friends to pose as human shields.
Sabah's mother told Lebanon's LBC television station that "he apologizes" for putting them through such an experience but "he wanted to become a martyr either in Palestine or Iraq."
"It was impossible for him to go to Palestine, so he headed to Iraq," the mother said. His father hoped that he would find Wael before he crossed into Iraq and convince him to return home. But Syrian border officers confirmed that he was already in Iraq.
"May God protect him and all his friends and people in Iraq. What more can I say?" Sabah's father said.
(Dalal Saoud in Beirut and Thanaa Imam in Damascus contributed to this report.) |
