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Fadhil Radhi, an Iraqi citizen who said he traveled to Baghdad via the crossing, said he and his family passed through al-Walid around midnight on after deciding that life in Syria was too dangerous. His family of five had moved to Syria in 2007 to escape violence in their home in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. They were among what the U.N. estimates was more than a million Iraqis who moved to Syria during Iraq's darkest days between 2006 and 2008. "We decided to return to Iraq because we feared for our lives, especially after the rise in killings and assaults targeting Iraqis living in Syria," Radhi, 48, said while unloading his luggage from the bus that drove him from Damascus. He said tickets for the trip had more than tripled in price
-- from $30 to $100 per person -- in the last week. "Thank God, we have the money to pay for the trip back because I know families who are stranded in Syria because they do not have money to go back home," he added. Anbar spokesman Fathi said the province had received an estimated 2,000 pleas for help from Iraqis living in Damascus who cannot reach the airport because of the fighting. At Qaim, an Associated Press photographer witnessed civilians looting the Syrian side of the border crossing, hauling away tables and chairs. A black plume of smoke could be seen over the compound. Brig. Gen. Al-Dulaimi said there appeared to be no Syrian forces between the border at Qaim and the nearest Syrian city, Dair al-Zawr, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away. The area is traditionally controlled by Sunni tribes. Another band of rebels had attacked a Syrian military outpost near the Iraqi border in the remote Sinjar mountain range on Thursday, killing 21 soldiers in a grisly onslaught, al-Dulaimi said. "They slaughtered them in a very bad way," al-Dabbagh said, without providing other details.
[Associated
Press;
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