1.3m people displaced in Iraq
2006-06-27 14:50
Baghdad - The number of displaced people in Iraq has swelled by 150 000 since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February pushed the country to the brink of civil war, a United Nations agency said on Tuesday.
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) put the number
of displaced higher than the 130 386 estimate of registered
internal refugees given by the ministry of displacement and
migration on Monday.
"It is estimated that 1.3 million individuals are displaced
inside Iraq, nearly five percent of the country's total
population," said a UNAMI statement.
"While many were displaced as long ago as the early 1980s,
the last four months of increasing violence and relentless
sectarian tensions have resulted in the displacement of a
further 150 000 individuals."
Latest violence
The grim assessment came two days after Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki unveiled a reconciliation plan aimed at tackling the
Sunni Arab insurgency and easing sectarian bloodshed.
In fresh violence, a car bomb exploded at a petrol station
in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at least three
people and wounding 21, police said.
Police said the death toll climbed to 18 from a blast on
Monday near a market in the Shi'ite village of Khairnabat, near
Baquba, 65km north-east of Baghdad.
Three policemen were killed and three wounded when a
roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in south-eastern
Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said.
- Reuters