Sources from the ARMM’s political community, among them incumbent officials, said they have been receiving persistent information on the recruitment binge for over a month now from Muslim religious leaders.
Quoting the reports, the sources said dozens of Maranaw and Maguindanaoan men, mostly battle-hardened guerrillas, have left for Iraq after they were recruited by dissidents allegedly linked to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"They were promised high pay and additional training on guerrilla warfare there," one of the sources said.
Another source, a preacher based in the second district of Lanao del Sur, said the latest to have left for Iraq were 17 Maranaws disguised as construction workers.
The MILF earlier had repeatedly admitted it had sent guerrillas to Afghanistan in the 1980s, to help mujahideen forces there topple the regime of the Soviet-backed Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah.
The MILF guerrillas, who fought side-by-side with Afghan rebel forces then, became field commanders of the front when they returned to Mindanao.
However, a foreign-trained Islamic missionary, who asked not to be identified, said he has "credible information" that Filipinos recruited by Iraqi rebel forces were being given only "menial tasks" in the pro-Saddam guerrilla force.
"Some of them even have sad tales of how they were sexually abused by their Arab counterparts," the source said.
Local leaders in the ARMM said they are now initiating ways to prevent their constituents from being recruited by Iraqi dissidents.
Members of the religious communities in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, both component-provinces of the ARMM, said they are convinced that many Filipinos of fighting age may have long gone to Iraq through the southern backdoor.