Basra: Hundreds of Iraqis in a southern city have attended the funeral of two Shiite fighters killed in Syria.
In Basra, mourners on Friday carried the coffin of Mohammad Aboud, who they say was killed by a sniper fire near the shrine of Sayida Zainab outside the capital of Damascus five days before.
The coffin of the other slain fighter, Hassan Ali, was rushed to Baghdad at the start of the funeral. Relatives said both bodies were transported from Syria via Iran before being returned to Iraq.
For months Iraqi Shiite fighters have trickled into Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are fighting a regime dominated by a Shiite offshoot sect.
Their relatives say they are drawn by a sense of religious duty to protect the Sayida Zainab shrine.
