A Michigan man who flew into Amman from Baghdad on Saturday reported that other U.S. citizens he encountered in the Iraqi capital were well and leading a fairly normal life.

Nick Ablahad, a machinist from Hazel Park, Mich., arrived at Queen Alia International Airport on an Iraqi airliner carrying about 170 other evacuees."Everything was normal in Iraq," he said.

It was not clear why Ablahad was allowed to leave while about 3,000 other Americans are being held. Iraq has allowed some foreigners of Arab extraction to leave, regardless of nationality. Ablahad said he held an Iraqi residency permit but had been traveling on a one-month vacation.

He said he was leaving because he had to return to his job. Ablahad said he saw about 20 American friends during his visit to Iraq and "they all looked fine to me."

"They are going to the movies, bars, the Sheraton and stuff like that. We had no problems at all there."

He had no information on Westerners sent by Iraq to sites near military installations and potential targets to deter attack by the multinational force gathered in Saudi Arabia.

PLO chairman Yasser Arafat also flew into Amman, according to a senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Arafat's agenda was not disclosed, but he has tried to act as an intermediary in the gulf crisis.

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The flood of foreigners pouring through Jordanian border posts - the great majority of them Arabs - continued Saturday, although officials said the number had decreased.

One security official, speaking from his border office, said, "A much fewer number of people are crossing my borders now and we were told by Iraqi authorities that the number of people on their borders is in the hundreds."

He said Jordanian authorities were transporting away 7,000 people stranded for two days at the Ruweishid border post, 210 miles northeast of Amman. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said 5,000 foreigners were at the Iraqi border post of Rutbah, 75 miles west of Ruweishid and 590 miles west of Baghdad, and they are expected to cross to Jordan shortly.

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