“When the fighting [that took place in the Iraqi town of Hayy around April 1, 2003] was over, the locals told the Marines that the Fedayeen [paramilitary fighters] were mostly foreigners, and they had retreated to a suspected camp at Muwaffaqiyah, a few miles northwest of Hayy. …Some of the defenders killed at Hayy and Muwaffaqiyah were Syrians in well-tailored civilian clothes. According to their passports they had arrived in Iraq as a group during the first week of the invasion. All had visas stamped with their entry location, al Qa’im where the Euphrates crossed the Syrian border. In the section for ‘Purpose of Visit,’ the Iraqi control officer had penned in, ‘Jihad.’ ”
– Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II, Page 418