Thousands of mourners in the western Indian state of Gujarat thronged the burial Sunday of an Indian-born US soldier who died on duty in war-torn Iraq, witnesses said. Hatim Kathiria, who was killed in a rocket attack on a warehouse in Baghdad on August 22, was flown to his hometown of Dahod, where relatives, friends and thousands of residents attended his burial.
The crowds showered flowers and sang Islamic hymns as the body of 23-year-old Kathiria, who had studied computer engineering before leaving India for the United States, was driven to a burial ground of Dahod, a tiny town in coastal Gujarat.
"I have no regrets of my son joining the US army," said the Muslim trooper's father, Siraj Kathiria.
Kathiria, who travelled to Dallas, Texas in 2003, joined the US Army a year later in the hope a stint in the forces would fund a college scholarship in the United States. "He planned to work as a soldier for four years and then get back to academics," his father said. "The Almighty had other plans. Even then, I don't think Siraj was wrong in taking this decision."
In November 2003, Sergeant Uday Singh, 21, became the first Indian-born US soldier to be killed in Iraq.