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Egyptians, Sudanese, Jordanians,
Saudis and Syrian volunteer fighters are continuing to enter Iraq
to fight against US-led invasion forces as they move in on
Baghdad.
One officer with the 1st Marine
Division told AFP that his troops had fought a 10 hour battle with
hundreds of fighters southeast of Baghdad yesterday, claiming to
have killed 300-400 by dawn this morning.
"Some of these fighters come
from Sudan, Egypt, other places and we have killed a number of
them and captured a number of them," Brigadier
General Vincent Brooks told a briefing at Central Command in
Qatar.
Nevertheless, there are now signs
that the steady trickle of immigrant fighters may be growing in
size. Western intelligence sources say that they have detected
groups of Saudi fighters trying to get into Iraq to attack US and
UK forces there, according to the BBC. Others are trying to cross
into Iraq from Iran. Four groups of Saudis are also said to have
left their hideouts in Afghanistan to join Iraqi forces as well.
Yemen has prevented 39 of its
nationals from travelling to Damascus. Their one-way tickets had
been paid for by the Ba’ath party of Yemen. The ages of the
young men ranged from between 20-25, mostly from the province of
Ma’rib. Since the decision to stop one-way ticket
holders from going to Damascus and Amman, there is no way of
knowing how many have made it through.
Despite repeated warnings from the
US, Damascus has continued to allow passage of volunteers across
its border with Iraq. Thousands of volunteers, most of them
Syrians, have made their way to the Mosul and Kirkuk regions in
northern Iraq. Haitham Kilani, Syria's former ambassador to the
United Nations, said Syria had a long border with Iraq and that it
was "only natural" for volunteers to be crossing.
Egypt’s highest religious
authority, Sheikh Al-Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawi said yesterday:
“whoever wants to go to Iraq to support the Iraqi people, the
door is open, and I say the door for Jihad is open until the day
of judgement. Whoever wants to go to support the Iraqi people, I
welcome that, I welcome that, I welcome that. I say to him go with
peace and I wish you well. We do not prevent anyone from going to
help those who are facing injustice.” Activists say hundreds of
Egyptians have signed up with the country’s Lawyers’ Union to
fight in Iraq.
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin
Ramadan said last week that more than 6,000 volunteers had reached
Iraq from the Arab world with Muslims from Sweden to Sudan and
Morocco to Afghanistan, with senior Iraqi officials making similar
statements last weekend.
Such is the passion the war has
stoked in the Muslim world, even far-flung countries are producing
volunteers, on paper at least. Yesterday the Muktijoddha
Sangsad (Freedom Fighters Association) in Bangladesh said it
planned to send voluntary soldiers to Iraq to fight the
"invading" US-led troops, reported the official
Bangladesh News Agency.
It said that some 10,000
Bangladeshi volunteers were now ready to join the war against
"aggression" in Iraq while more intending volunteers
were welcome to register their names with the council.
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