BAGHDAD — President Saddam Hussein said today that millions of Iraqis had volunteered to fight a jihad or holy war against Israel and ordered the opening of military camps to train them.
More than 6 million people came forward between Oct. 10 and Nov. 10 after he issued a call for volunteers, Saddam said in a message broadcast on state radio and television.
They totaled 6,607,306 people, including 2,051,791 women, he said.
Saddam called for volunteers for an anti-Israeli jihad early in October after the eruption of Palestinian-Israeli violence in which more than 190 people have now been killed, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
He said in October Iraq was ready to "put an end to Zionism" if Arab rulers did not defend the Palestinians against Israel.
He announced the end of voluntary recruitment on Friday and ordered the opening of military training camps for those "willing to launch jihad to liberate Palestine."
"When we opened doors for volunteering, we knew that the Iraqi people are psychologically and ideologically ready and practically prepared together with its armed forces to fight for liberating Palestine from the river to the sea," Saddam said.
The opening of the training camps showed "enemies and some of the good people" the determination of the Iraqi people, he added.
Iraq has consistently taken a hard line against Israel and fired Scud missiles at it during the 1991 Gulf War. It opposes peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians and those that Egypt and Jordan have signed with Israel.