SYRIA - May 9 - Damascus Takes In 244 Refugees.

A group of 244 Palestinians stranded for several weeks on the border between Iraq and Jordan enters Syria at the al-Tanaf crossing point after Damascus agreed to take them in. The refugees fled violence in Baghdad in March and had been camping in no-man's land on the Iraqi-Jordanian border since Amman blocked their entry. The group of men, women and children entered Syria via the al-Tanaf crossing point, some 300kms east of Damascus, where they received food and medical care, an AFP photographer reported. The group was expected to be taken to the Abu al-Hol refugee camp, some 700kms north-east of the Syrian capital, a customs official said on condition of anonymity. Some of the refugees who crossed from the border post with Iraq have Iraqi or Palestinian identity papers, "but some have no documentation at all", he added. Hala Ali, 30, said she had been stranded on the border for the past six weeks, sleeping out in the open after fleeing violence in the Iraqi capital. "Neither the Iraqis nor the Jordanians wanted us", she said. Mahmoud Kayed, 23, said he spent two and a half months on the border. "The UN brought us here", to Al-Tanaf, he said. Palestinian FM Mahmoud Zahar said during a visit to Syria last month that the authorities in Damascus had agreed to accept the refugees, citing the good ties which his Hamas faction has with the Syrian regime. Some of the Islamist faction's leadership, including Khaled Meshaal, live in Damascus, while Hamas, which won January's Palestinian election, is considered a terrorist group by several Western governments. Jordan, which is already home to around 1.7m Palestinians who fled Israeli violence over the years, had rejected criticism from human rights groups, saying it could cope with no more refugees. Jordanian officials have urged other countries neighbouring Iraq to take new arrivals. Many of the refugees from Iraq were aiming to travel to the Palestinian territories, the UN refugee agency said in April. Around 34,000 Palestinians live in Iraq, where they enjoyed privileges under Saddam Hussein's regime.