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More than one million Iraqis ready for holy war against Israel:
official BAGHDAD, Oct 12 (AFP) - More than one million people have volunteered in Iraq to join the jihad (holy war) against Israel alongside the Palestinians, an Iraqi official said Thursday. "The number of people who have volunteered for the jihad in Palestine has surpassed one million," an official in Iraq's ruling Baath party said. "The volunteers, both men and women, are coming more and more to recruitment centers," he said. Meanwhile, the director of Iraqi's Baath office, Adnan Daud Sulaiman, said nearly 700,000 people had volunteered in the two days after President Saddam Hussein issued a mobilization call. The Iraqi cabinet, with Hussein presiding, announced Sunday it was mobilizing volunteers for a "jihad in Palestine" and was devoting five million euros (4.4 million dollars) to the Palestinian uprising. Millions of Iraqis have undergone military training in the past several years in training camps opened in Baghdad and the provinces. Iraq is militantly opposed to the US-brokered Middle East peace process. Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse |
