Hundreds of Iraqis head home on buses in first Baghdad-funded refugee return

DAMASCUS, Syria — Hundreds of Iraqi refugees boarded buses for home on Tuesday in the first convoy from an Iraqi-funded effort to speed the return of families that fled the country's violence and insecurity.

Many Iraqis have headed back on own their own from Syria and elsewhere as extremist attacks have fallen sharply in Baghdad and other areas. But now the Iraqi government is hoping to accelerate the flow — and draw more attention to the recent drop in violence — by offering to pay for trips home.

The program also seeks to win favor from neighboring countries such as Syria and Jordan that are struggling with an estimated 2.2 million Iraqi refugees. Syria has tightened visa rules for Iraqis in hopes of forcing people to return home and blocking new refugees.

"Baghdad, you are victorious," chanted some Iraqis as they headed for a line of 20 buses that would carry about 800 refugees to the border. From there, Iraqi buses are scheduled to bring them to Baghdad on Wednesday, said according to Mohammed Ali al-Budairi, a coordinator for displaced Iraqis in Syria.

The entire trip can take about 10 hours without interruptions, but the convoy will likely be delayed by checkpoints and security precautions. Details about the protection for the convoy was not immediately disclosed.

Khaled Ibrahim, 45, said he was willing to return to Baghdad after hearing the security situation had improved in the capital. But he acknowledged he could pull up stakes again at the first signs of trouble.

"If I go and discover that the situation is not stable, I will come back" to Syria, said Ibrahim, with his wife, three sons and two daughters in tow.

His elder son Abdullah, 13, looked forward to attending school in Baghdad. "Explosions don't scare me," he chirped.

The first bus left by mid-afternoon from al-Sayda Zeinab, an area in southern Damascus where thousands of Iraqi refugees have lived since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.

Syrian officials says the country has up to 1.5 million Iraqi refugees, straining its education, health and housing systems. Jordan estimates it has up to 700,000 Iraqis. In addition, the U.N. refugee agency has cited various reports of more than 2.4 million Iraqis displaced inside the country.

Adnan al-Shourifi, the commercial secretary at the Iraqi Embassy in Damascus, described the bus convoy Tuesday as a "test."