Over 3,000 families in Iraq flee recent conflict

The Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and Displacement said on Mar. 21 that 3,705 families had been displaced in the country, as a result of the ongoing sectarian violence. It erupted following the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine, Al-Askariya, in Samarra, some 75 miles north of Baghdad. The attack on the Al-Askariya shrine spawned days of reprisal attacks between the country's two major Muslim sects, the Shiites and the Sunnis. At least 400 people were killed and dozens of mosques were damaged and destroyed, according to figures released last week by the Interior Ministry. Sattar Nawroz, the spokesman for the Ministry of Immigration and Displacement, said that most of the displaced families went to the southern city of Najaf. About 1,000 families had descended there from Baghdad's restive western neighborhoods, and from the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk as well as from Diyala, northeast of Baghdad. The second largest number of the displaced families, 615, Nawroz added, have fled to the center of Baghdad, from the capital's western and northern suburbs. The government has allocated about $350,000 to provide the affected people with essential supplies, but more funds will be needed as displacement in some places is still ongoing, he said. Some of the families have ended up in their relatives' homes while others less fortunate found shelter in partially built structures, mosques and in abandoned government buildings. The head of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Dr. Saad Haqi, said his organization was supplying the displaced families with food, tents, blankets and beds. "Our volunteers are working like bees trying to reach all places to help these families," Haqi said. Ridha Hussein, 45, left his home in Baghdad's lawless neighborhood of Dora with his four children and wife and found shelter in an abandoned sports hall in the Mansour neighborhood. This was after militants killed his brother and left a note on his door reading: "Leave the area or have your head chopped off. You Shiites are traitors and America's allies." Donated sacks of sugar, rice and flour were piled up in one corner of a sports club in Baghdad where about 10 families have taken shelter.