Events of Syria throw the Iraqis towards a new adventure and choices does not exceed four

More than 5000 people in Syria were killed since the outbreak of the unrest in March 2011, according to UN statistics Syrian regime used violence against the protests that have spread in the streets.

The Iraqis in Syria, were subjected to assassination, kidnapping and extortion. According to some sources, many Iraqis were killed after abduction by some gangs because their parents could not pay their ransom.

Um Mazin lives with her family in Syria since 2007, " We are waiting for our resettlement  in a third country but now we no longer feel safe here," according to what she said  to "Shafaq  News".

Um Mazin aged 34 years and have 3 children continued "We do not know where to go if it continues the same situation continues here".

"It is the same situation that we ran from in Iraq at that time." She added.

Syria is the home for more than one million Iraqis who left their country with the beginning of the entry of the Americans to their homeland and the fall of the former regime and the subsequent conflicts.

According to UNHCR of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, statistics show that half of Iraqi asylum-seekers went to Syria, where they form 93% of the total refugees who are in Syria.

With deepening ethnic and sectarian divisions, where Alawite minority forms the elite of political and military leaders in a country that contains a Sunni majority and with the increasing of cruel military campaigns and splits of some members of the army, Syria reached to the brink of civil war.

The Sunni minority ruled the Shiite majority in Iraq during the Saddam Hussein era, where analysts say the similarity of the situation in Syria and Iraq makes the Iraqis living there to be concerned about the future.

Salam Jamal the sociologist said to "Shafaq News", "Both of Iraq and Syria are divided on ethnic bases," noting "the minority, however, concentrated power in Iraq before 2003, as is the case in Syria."

Iraq fought a difficult sectarian war after the collapse of the regime of Saddam Hussein and this is exactly what the refugees in Syria expect now for the Syrian regime. For this Jamal commented "This is exactly what scares them." In addition to the lawlessness, which will be accompanied by tidal disturbances?

Najah is a young man, who asked not to disclose his full name for security reasons said to "Shafaq News": " A Syrian friend was kidnapped last month and the kidnappers demanded ransom for his release."

He said "This makes me feel I am still in Iraq," adding, "We are about to live the same horrifying period that we have lived in Iraq before."

The Iraqi Shukria Jamal who is living in the neighborhood of Sayyida Zainab in Damascus said to for "Shafaq News" "If conditions continue deteriorating in Syria we will make the risk of returning to Iraq."

Ammar Ali, 38, said to" Shafaq News" that he is thinking to leave Syria with his parents and two sisters heading to Lebanon or Iraqi Kurdistan.

Samir Hatem, 36, owns a cafe in Syria feels that the decision to leave and stay in Syria divide him into two halves, where his friends told him that the situation is stable in Baghdad, but the explosions, there contradict their words.

About that, Hatem said, "I do not deny my longing to my home and my neighbors and friends but  in another side   if my return means  my death or the death of one of my relatives I will never go back."

Jassim Mohammed, 29 years said  to " Shafaq t News", "I'm concerned  about the situation I do not know ,I may be killed before my resettlement in a third country."

According to observers, the UN has accelerated the resettlement measures on the background of the critical situation in Syria.

Still, Iraqi refugees in Syria live in a state of fear, Mohammed said, "fear will not be vanished for good even if I am told that my resettlement in a third country has been approved, only if I go up the plane to head to this new country."