- BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net)
-- U.S. soldiers in Iraq are escaping from Iraq under the guise of Kurdish
citizens, wearing the famous Iraqi and Arab al-Dashdasha (loose headdress)
which has become mush sought-after recently, Iraqis told IslamOnline.net
Sunday, July 27.
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- However, a U.S. colonel categorically denied that 2,500
U.S. soldiers have escaped from duty so far, noting that it was a rumor
propagated by the Baathists and the loyalists to ousted Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.
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- Speaking to IOL, Saeed al-Aidany, a galabia (gown) seller,
said, "We were surprised at the very beginning to see a lot of U.S.
soldiers buying al-Dashdasha, but it came to our knowledge that they used
it as a camouflage to make their escape to Gulf states".
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- Aidany further claimed that U.S. soldiers were also seen
buying Kurdish costumes to make their way to Turkey through northern Iraq.
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- Abdul Amir al-Hasnawi, a truck driver, alleged he helped
two U.S. soldiers escape to Kuwait.
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- "Two Black U.S. soldiers arrived in Basra through
a Christian go-between from Baghdad, who used to work as a translator with
the Americans. They were in jeans and I smuggled them to Kuwait in return
for $450 each," Hasnawi told IOL.
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- "The go-between told me that the two soldiers did
not want to be gunned down in Iraq without a cause," he added.
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- Kazem al-Badri, a taxi driver, claimed that cab and truck
drivers nowadays are testing the pulse of search themselves or through
go-betweens for U.S. soldiers who want to escape from the war-scarred country
in return for bucks.
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- "It is not a rumor or an Iraqi propaganda but it
is a fact, because I myself know a lot of drivers who helped U.S. soldiers
escape from Iraq," Badri insisted, adding that smuggling rates hit
first a mind-boggling $5,000 for each soldier but were not put down to
$500.
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- ãBaathist Rumorsä
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- The U.S. colonel, however, said the U.S. soldiers in
Iraq are remarkably committed and it quite natural that they are longing
to see their loved ones.
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- Iraqi newspapers said recently that the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) had discovered that a number of U.S. soldiers operating in
Iraq were trying to escape from Iraq through the country's western borders.
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- The daily Al-Qabas said that the CIA arrested those soldiers
and charged them with duty negligence, adding that the soldiers were stationing
in the flashpoint Iraqi towns.
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- U.S. troops in Iraq voiced their complaints on air July
17 of <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-07/17/article04.shtml>low
morale and little faith in their commanders.
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- Speaking to ABC news, one U.S. soldier said: "If
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was here, I'd ask him for his resignation."
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