AMMAN Ñ Palestinians are fleeing Iraq following the fall of the
regime of President Saddam Hussein.
Scores of Palestinians are arriving daily at the Iraqi-Jordanian
border applying for entry to the Hashemite kingdom. Some of the Palestinians
said they have been subjected to attacks and threats after the fall of the
Baghdad to the U.S.-led coalition.
"We are being seen as the biggest supporters of Iraq and are no longer
wanted," one Palestinian said.
Arab diplomatic sources said about 42,000 Palestinians live in Iraq,
most of them in Baghdad. Palestinians began arriving in Iraq in large
numbers in the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Middle East Newsline reported.
About 300 Palestinians with Iraqi citizenship have requested asylum in
Jordan, the sources said.
Palestinians reported that they have been the leading victims of attacks
as well as looting in Baghdad. They said many Palestinian apartments and
homes were targeted in the Iraqi capital by looters who identified the
Palestinians as
supporters of the Saddam regime.
Several Palestinians were said to have been killed in battles with
looters in Baghdad. They said the attacks in Baghdad intensified since the
city fell to the U.S. military on April 9.
Other Palestinians were killed in the battle of Baghdad, the
Palestinians said. They said some of them were killed by U.S. soldiers as
they were walking or driving along the streets of the capital.
Baghdad is said to contain tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of
whom were granted citizenship by the Saddam regime in the early 1980s. The
Iraqi opposition has called for a review of citizenship granted to Arab
supporters of Saddam and suggested that some of them might be expelled.
Palestinians also received citizenship from Saddam in return for
settling in Kirkuk, a Kurdish-populated city regarded as a threat to the
regime. Since the late 1980s, Palestinians and other Arab nationals were
provided with homes that belonged to Kurds killed or expelled by the Saddam
regime.
