Violence, killings escalate in Iraq: U.N. official

Violence and killings in Iraq have escalated in the past seven to eight months, with some 100 people killed in the country every day, the United Nations top humanitarian official said on Wednesday.

Sectarian violence, armed militias and death squads had created a "very worrying deterioration of conditions" for Iraqi civilians, said Jan Egeland, U.N. Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, at a press conference.

Many people in Iraq had been killed by gunshots or tortured to death. "Revenge killing seems to be totally out of control," he added.

Apart from this, more than 300,000 Iraqis have been displaced since February, when a Shi'ite shrine in the city of Samarra was bombed sparking waves of violence.

According to the official, about 1.2 to 1.5 million Iraqi refugees are now being sheltered in neighboring countries. Some 2,000 Iraqi refugees cross the border to Syria every day.

Egeland appealed to all who have influence in Iraq, including religious leaders, government officials and other people, to take necessary measures to halt the violence.

He also called on donor countries to keep funding UN humanitarian activities in the country. "We need more money to run our future programs in the country."

Source: Xinhua