SANAA, Yemen, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Yemen's ruling General Popular Congress Party Sunday accused the Pentagon of pushing American-Arabs, especially Yemenis, to the "hell of battles" in Iraq.
The party said in a statement that Yemenis returning from Iraq were saying they were "surprised to find thousands of American soldiers of Arab origin fighting in Iraq, who speak Arabic and with a Yemeni accent in particular."
The statement quoted Mukhtar al-Sharaabi, a Yemeni student who had recently returned from Iraq, as saying he met two American marines of Yemeni origin who told him there were "many soldiers of Arab origin whom the Pentagon had pushed in Iraq as part of the American occupation."
The student quoted the two marines as saying the U.S. Defense Department "purposely pushes many American-Arab soldiers to fight in Iraq, especially to the areas where the resistance against the occupation is fierce, such as Fallujah."
The soldiers reportedly said they were against their military command "which forces American-Arab soldiers to confront their Iraqi brothers, but we have no choice but to follow orders."
