BEIRUT - Growing numbers of Lebanese are being lured by the high salaries on offer from the US-led coalition to risk their lives as security contractors in Iraq, a leading Beirut daily reported Thursday.
"As the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, Lebanon has become a favoured market for US firms recruiting security contractors," An-Nahar said.
"Lebanese are sought after because of the military and security experience they have gained in our many wars, their relatively low salary demands compared to their Western counterparts, and their knowledge of the Arabic language which allows them to get by in an environment hostile to Westerners.
"The salaries on offer to Lebanese range between 1,000 dollars and 4,000 dollars a month, a paltry sum by comparison with the salaries paid to French, American or even Croat volunteers who can command payment as high as 10,000 dollars a day for certain missions."
The daily said it had identified nearly 70 Lebanese who had left for Iraq in the past two months alone and was aware of more who were preparing to go.
It said many were former militiamen from Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, most of them from Christian factions.
The exodus of nationals to fight in the war in Iraq has begun to worry the Lebanese government, which has strongly opposed the US-led occupation.
The security services issued a press announcement calling on foreign recruitment firms to register and provide "complete lists of Lebanese nationals and Lebanon-based Palestinian refugees being recruited to work abroad".
The announcement came as three Lebanese were kidnapped in Iraq, one of them later freed, while a fourth has been murdered.
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