ZARQA, Jordan -- When the wounded Chechen fighters arrived in Jordan in 1994, everything changed for Younis Ashab.
TV reports showed the young rebels in a hospital in Amman -- 70 guerrillas who were injured in the breakaway republic's revolt against Moscow and brought to Jordan by an Islamic charity -- and they inspired Ashab, a 53-year-old Koranic judge. He sought out the young fighters, married off his daughter to one of them and even ended up moving to Chechnya for a time.
"They are our people and they speak our language," he said. "We supported them through every means we could."