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