UN agency: Over 910,000 Iraqis displaced

More than 910,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since the US-led invasion in 2003, more than half of them since an increase in sectarian bloodshed at the start of this year, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

The overall number is likely to be much higher, said Ron Redmond, chief spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The agency has concluded that 754,000 displaced Iraqis remain in the country, while tens of thousands more have sought refuge abroad.

"We remain extremely concerned about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq and the ongoing displacement this is creating both inside and outside Iraq," Redmond told reporters.

Most of those who have fled their homes came from central areas of the country around Baghdad, Redmond said.

"There are some in the north and south as well, but the majority are in the centre. A lot of them are going to Sunni areas, or Shia areas, where they have family, relatives, other social groups that will help them and take care of them," Redmond said.

Nearly half of those who have fled to other areas within Iraq or about 365,000 people have left since sectarian fighting intensified after the bombing of an important Shi'ite shrine in the city of Samarra in February.

Redmond said the figures were compiled by UNHCR staffers from information provided by government offices and other aid agencies.

The flow of refugees into neighbouring countries also increased sharply after the Samarra attack, but the governments have so far failed to provide the agency with overall numbers, Redmond said.

Redmond said that at least 40,000 Iraqis have arrived in Syria every month for the last four months.

UNHCR estimates that there are 1.6 million Iraqis in other countries in the region, mainly Jordan and Syria, but some of those have been outside Iraq for more than a decade.

In another development, the Shi'ite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dispatched an emergency security delegation that included the Minister of State for Security Affairs and top officials from the Interior and Defence ministries, said Yassin Majid, the prime minister's media adviser said. Al-Sadr representatives had rushed Amarah from the holy city of Najaf to the north.

The Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations on Friday morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings, residents said.

This is the first recent fighting that has pitted Shi'ites against one another on such a scale.

Britain returned the city to Iraqi military control in August, and a British officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make press statements, said Iraqi army and police forces were massing to retake the city of 750,000.

At least 15 people, including five militiamen, one policeman and two bystanders, have been killed in clashes since Friday, Zamil Shia, director of Amarah's department of health, said by telephone from the city, about 320 kilometres southeast of Baghdad.

Source: China Daily