HUMAN shield Antoinette McCormick was last night reported to be on her way out of Iraq and heading for Syria.
The 38-year-old, a veteran of the first Gulf War, left Baghdad after being told she could no longer stay there on her tourist visa.
She had hoped to have the visa extended but local authorities refused, and she was heading for Syria on a bus with five others.
However, when she reaches the Syrian capital of Damascus, she hopes to head for Amnan in Jordan, where she was based until recently, co-ordinating other human shields.
Once there, she intends to attempt to get a human shield visa and return to Baghdad, but her parents in York, although supportive, feel she has now done enough.
"It has been desperately worrying while she has been in Baghdad," said her mother Mairi at her home in Huntington Road last night.
"I am enormously relieved she is now on her way out. We are now going to do the best we can to persuade her to come home."
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