AP Exclusive: Syria rebels recruit at refugee camp
Source: AP-Excite
By JAMAL HALABY
ZAATARI CAMP, Jordan (AP) - In a makeshift mosque in a trailer in this sprawling camp for Syrian refugees, a preacher appeals to worshippers to join their countrymen in the fight to topple President Bashar Assad. In another corner of the Zaatari camp, two men draped in the Syrian rebel flag call on refugees through loudspeakers to sign up for military training.
Rebels in the camp freely acknowledge recruiting fighters in the camp in a drive that has increased since the summer, trying to bolster rebel ranks in the face of stepped up offensives by Assad's forces just across the border in southern Syria.
Recruiting is banned in Zaatari, and the rebel activities put Jordanian officials and United Nations' officials running the camp in a delicate position. Wary of further increasing tensions with the government in neighboring Syria, Jordan has sought to keep its support of rebels under the radar, officially denying that any training of anti-Assad fighters takes place on its soil, though both Jordanian and American officials have acknowledged it does.
For the U.N., the recruitment mars what is supposed to be a purely humanitarian mission of helping the streams of Syrians fleeing the 2 1/2-year-old civil war, which activists say has killed more than 120,000 people. Zaatari, only 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Syrian border, is home to more than 100,000 Syrian refugees.
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In this Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013 photo, Abu Abdullah Hourani, 27, covers up his face prior to his interview with The Associated Press, at the Zaatari refugee camp near the Syrian border. n the bustling marketplace of this sprawling camp for Syrian refugees, a mosque preacher appeals to worshippers to join their countrymen in the fight to topple President Bashar Assad. In another corner of the Zaatari camp, two men draped in the Syrian rebel flag call on refugees through loudspeakers to sign up for military training. Rebels in the camp freely acknowledge recruiting fighters in the camp in a drive that has increased since the summer. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)
