Both duties, he says, are in many respects part of the same fight — burying Shiites killed in sectarian fighting in Iraq, and blocking radical Sunnis from taking control of Syria.
They have so far stayed out of sectarian fighting.
Last week in Lebanon, the assassination of an anti-Assad cleric triggered sectarian fighting in Beirut.
But this could be seen as a step towards Kurdish secession, unravelling federal Iraq and creating yet more sectarian fighting.
The neighborhoods were formerly home to Shiites and Sunnis but became overwhelmingly Shiite as a result of sectarian fighting.
More than 10,000 Iraqis were kidnapped by criminal gangs, Sunni extremist groups and Shiite militias during the bloodiest years of sectarian fighting.
Recent bombing attacks have increased concerns that the violence is pushing the country toward the kind of widespread sectarian fighting it suffered in 2006 and 2007.
Extremist Sunni Arab groups have been active in Diyala, and there has also been sectarian fighting between Sunni Arabs and Shiite militias.
Afghan officials said the Shiite men entered Afghanistan because they were trying to travel from the Kurram tribal agency in Pakistan to the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, but the normal route was blocked because of sectarian fighting.
Iraq is weathering its worst eruption of violence in half a decade, raising fears that the country is heading back toward the widespread sectarian fighting that peaked in 2006 and 2007.
All this comes amid a resurgence of intense suspicion towards Australia's Muslim community in the wake of reports that up to 300 Australians have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join sectarian fighting.
