World Kurds Flee Syria, Seeks Refuge in Iraq

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More than 7,000 refugees crossed the border at Peshkhabour on Thursday and 10,000 followed yesterday in what has been the largest single refugee migration in recent years.


The UN agencies, the Kurdish regional government and NGOs are struggling to cope.

The UN says the reasons for the migration are not fully clear, but there has been a sharp rise in clashes between Syrian Kurds and anti-government Islamist militants.The ethnic make-up of the latest wave has not been detailed.

Some 150,000 Syrian refugees are already registered in Iraq, of the 3 million said to have fled Syria in total since the uprising began.

The UN said the latest refugees had come from Aleppo, Hassakeh, Qamishli and other areas of conflict.

The UN said it was working with the Iraqi Kurdistan government and other agencies to establish a camp at nearby Darashakran which hopefully would open in two weeks and relieve pressure in refugee camps.

Kurds make up about 10% of the Syrian population and are largely concentrated in the north-east.

They staged their own anti-Assad protests after the Syria conflict began in 2011 and their areas have been run by Kurdish local councils and militia since government forces withdrew last year.

But the Kurdish militias have recently been fighting jihadists of the anti-Assad al-Nusra Front, leaving dozens dead.

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, recently threatened to intervene to defend the Kurdish population caught up in Syria's unrest.

Iraqi Kurdistan comprises three provinces in northern Iraq. It has its own military and police force.
 
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