Iraqis lament “unfair” Arab media coverage of the phenomenon of Arab volunteers

By Aws Al-Sharqy, IOL Iraq Correspondent  

BAGHDAD, MAY 6 (IslamOnline.net) – Weeks after the end of the U.S.-led invasion of their country, Iraqis now stand up to defend themselves against a new campaign; this time launched by the Arab media.

Many of national broadcasters aired stories of Arab volunteers who fought with the Iraqi forces accusing the latter of “selling out their country” for the U.S.-led forces who easily trundled into Baghdad to no fight. Iraqis are outraged that their voices were never heard in what they consider unfair one-sided reports.

Seeking out a clear picture of the situation, IOL reporter moved to Al-Dawra al-Shiia, the first area in the Iraqi capital where the U.S. soldiers entered and where Arab volunteers said they were massacred and harassed by locals as well as betrayed by Iraqi soldiers.

“No honorable or noble Iraqi will have done such a thing,” many of the residents at the area told IOL, with a mixed tone of wonder and disbelief of the touted claims they discovered at the Arab television stations and newspapers.

Three people who witnessed clashes with the U.S. forces took IOL reporter to the graves of 20 Iraqis and three Arab volunteers.

“The three were killed in action against the occupation forces, one of them was brought to the area heavily bleeding and was given first-aid. But he breathed his last shortly afterwards,” said Omar, 27.

“We were only against launching their attacks from populated areas. We just expressed out our anger by words. The residents even brought them food and drinks,” Yasser, another witness, said.

Volunteers earlier interviewed by IslamOnline.net said that inhabitants of southern town of Nassiriyah welcomed them with nothing but gunfire.

"We were fired at by the town residents, who killed three of us. They just shouted asking us 'why you are here? Did you come to defend Saddam?'" one of the volunteers had said.

The residents also dismissed all accounts that Arab volunteers fighting alongside them were attacked from Iraqi army members.

Admitting Iraqi forces run away from the field when they saw their colleagues fell down en masse, Yasser, 39, said Arab volunteers did the same.

Many Arab volunteers claimed that they were pushed into the frontlines against the U.S. forces while the elite Republican Guards and regular forces had stood behind and then pulled out in large and organized numbers.

“All sides fought ferociously, including many Iraqi youths whose lives were taken while carrying arms. Arab volunteers also felt the pinch of the rising death toll,” Yasser recalled bitterly.

Explaining conspiracy theories of Iraq’s defeat, volunteers said that they had seen thousands of Iraqi soldiers, dressed in civvies, abandoning their barracks allegedly under orders from their “command”.

Number Disputed

An Iraqi lieutenant colonel disputed the number of Arab volunteers, whom he said were mostly Syrians or Lebanese, coming to the country before the invasion was unleashed on March 20.

“The number hit 2,000, not 5000 as former Iraqi Information Minister had touted,” he said, with repeated refusal to give his name.

The lieutenant colonel said Iraqi forces “were concerned that some of the volunteer fighters might have been spies, so we did not directly give them weapons upon their arrival”.

The zealous volunteers complained they had been inadequately trained for the war and even handed out weapons few days before the U.S.-led aggression.

They were mostly kept in tunnels for days without ammunitions to face the invading forces or even enough foodstuffs to survive, according to their own accounts.

Friendly Fire

The Lieutenant colonel also blamed the shooting at volunteers by Iraqi soldiers on “friendly-fire”.

“There were large friendly-fire incidents in the war, and it is rather expected in such fierce clashes in which the Iraqi forces also mistakenly attacked the Iraqis’ houses,” he said.

The lieutenant colonel also rejected the accounts of Arab volunteers that they mainly joined hands with Iraqi forces in different showdowns with U.S.-British forces in Hilla, al-Kut, Karbala and Baghdad.

“Every Arab volunteer fought one time and in one battle. We could not have moved them from one place to another with such reported easiness.

“In the fighting that erupted around the International Baghdad airport, Arab volunteers did not play any role,” said the lieutenant colonel.

Volunteers said that they were directly thrust against the U.S. forces who had entered the airport, and some 400 of them were killed in the ensuing fighting after Iraqi forces in the back escaped the scene.

“Saddam’s Fedayeen played the key role against the U.S. forces,” said the lieutenant colonel.

“Some Arab youths who came here did not even join the fighting due to some bureaucratic procedures,” said Ahmed al-Jabouri, a former Military Intelligence officer.

“The Arab volunteers played a role against the invading forces, but not as great as painted by the Arab media,” said al-Jabouri, adding the reports are part of efforts by some parties to “frustrate the spirit of struggle among Arabs and Muslims.

“It is also an attempt to poison Iraqis’ sense of patriotism”.

Days before the breakout of war, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan announced that thousands of Arab volunteers seeking martyrdom were flocking to Iraq in droves.

The Iraqi embassy in Berlin had said before the aggression that "some volunteers" - Egyptians, Lebanese, Moroccans and Palestinians - had obtained visas to fight in Iraq, and that some Iraqis had returned home for that purpose.

Iraq's state-run television later said an estimated 4,000 fighters had arrived in the country.

Large number of Arab volunteers are reportedly still inside Iraq after the end of war, making up some of the most determined holdouts in the fight against the U.S.-led forces. Whether they are still alive or not remained a controversial question.

In Baghdad on Thursday, April 18, U.S. Marines cleared out two mosques after determining that fighters from other Arab countries were inside.