Posted on 04/09/2003 4:30:45 AM PDT by kattracks
Hurt and disillusioned, some Arab fighters go home
By Mariam Karouny
BEIRUT, April 9 (Reuters) - Salaam went to Iraq to do battle with Americans and die a martyr. He returned home with shrapnel wounds and tales of fighting U.S. military might with a rifle.
From a Baghdad hotel he moved to a training camp where volunteers practised shooting and trench warfare. Then Salaam, 24 years old and unemployed, was sent to war.
"I was sleeping behind mounds of sand and firing from kalashnikovs on helicopters. It was craziness," he said.
"We stayed at the front five days and we didn't eat anything. I saw two dead bodies shot in the head."
Thousands of volunteers from across the Arab world are thought to be in Iraq to fight advancing U.S. and British forces. On Wednesday, Saddam Hussein's rule collapsed as jubilant Iraqis welcomed U.S. troops in Baghdad.
Salaam, a Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim, said he was unprepared for the hostility of some Iraqis to volunteers like himself.
"I went there to be a martyr, not to be murdered by a brother," he told Reuters. "We went there to help them liberate their country, and all they did was shoot us in the back."
"I am not afraid of the Americans. On the contrary I want to fight them. But I was scared of the Iraqis, specifically those who call themselves the Iraqi opposition," he said.
In Lebanon hundreds requested visas to enter Iraq via Syria. Others like Salaam, whose name means peace, went on their own.
"People must understand we went there for jihad. Iraq is a holy land and we must protect it," said Salaam, who returned to Beirut last week with shrapnel in his leg.
Muslims believe that those killed in jihad, or holy war, are martyrs who go straight to paradise.
The Muslim holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala, home to some of Shi'ite Islam's most revered shrines, were the scene of fierce fighting earlier in the 21-day-old war.
PROMISED PASSPORT, HOUSE, BRIDE
Salaam, who returned with a friend who did not want his name used, said Iraq had promised them an Iraqi passport, a house and an Iraqi bride after the war ended as a reward for fighting.
Salaam is not normally religious.
He said the closest he got to action against the Americans was to shoot a rocket propelled grenade at a tank.
"I feel I am stronger than a hero," Salaam said. "I thought when I saw an airplane I would flee, but I stayed and I waited for them and God gave me the strength."
The body of another volunteer was brought home last week. Crowds met his wooden coffin with flowers and rice in the narrow streets of Beirut's Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp.
The Lebanese volunteers who fought the Americans in Iraq, however briefly, say they are heroes.
"I am proud that I went. I also felt that my father was so happy that I left. He didn't say anything but he was proud," said Salaam's friend.
"Our friends see us as heroes. One of them told me he is scared of the Americans because they have warplanes and he hates the sound. But I told him that God is on our side."
04/09/03 07:26 ET
Some martyr, I'd expect him to make stew out of it instead of complaining.
Whose Jihad? Losers, you're bound for hell.
The Lebanese volunteers who fought the Americans in Iraq, however briefly, say they are heroes.
These people are not Lebanese, they are Palestinian trouble makers. This article is full of sh!t.
Ha Ha! -- Nelson Muntz
I will apologize in advance for trivializing war and death...
but Bwahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
That's what is known as a clue.
Unfortunately, you missed it.
Even more unfortunately, it missed you too.
Then go back and try again. Coward.
He said the closest he got to action against the Americans was to shoot a rocket propelled grenade at a tank. "I feel I am stronger than a hero," Salaam said. "I thought when I saw an airplane I would flee, but I stayed and I waited for them and God gave me the strength."
So firing a single grenade and watching an airplane make a hero? Geez, there were Iraqis driving pickup trucks at tanks and Bradleys, getting blown to pieces in the process, and this guy thinks he's a hero? Should have followed the Iraqis' example and died fighting.
The Lebanese volunteers who fought the Americans in Iraq, however briefly, say they are heroes.
Well, they've got some fairly low standards for the "hero" status, I guess. Then again, Himmler considered himself a hero because he could stand and watch while others machine-gunned unarmed civilians by the hundreds.
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