WP: Arlington Burial for Iraqi, 4 U.S. Comrades

[DeepModem Mom]

Arlington Burial for Iraqi, 4 U.S. Comrades
By Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 12, 2005; Page B03


Capt. Ali Hussam Abass Alrubaeye died in his native Iraq, where he battled the insurgency alongside American airmen. He was buried yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery with four of those men, becoming the first Iraqi national interred there.

Abass, 34, was with members of a U.S. Air Force team when their plane crashed May 30 about 80 miles northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province. Their deaths were classified by the Air Force as "non-hostile."

Most of the men's remains were returned to their families for private burials, but officials said some could not be identified. They were interred yesterday in a single-casket group burial....

***

Lt. Col. Alton Phillips, an adviser with the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team who is aiding the Iraqi air force squadron to which Abass, a pilot, was assigned, said Abass had called his U.S. teammates "brothers in the struggle for freedom" after escaping a tight spot involving a forced landing.

"That's really the way everyone feels," Phillips said in a telephone interview from Iraq. "One team, one fight."

And now, one grave....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081101836.html

[uppityperson]

1. That's really sad.

"Most of the men's remains were returned to their families for private burials, but officials said some could not be identified. They were interred yesterday in a single-casket group burial...."

Really sad.

[Moderator]

2. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1692111