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Thousands more Syrian refugees cross into Iraq

23 August 2013 02:09 (UTC +04:00)

Thousands of new refugees crossed the border with Iraq on Wednesday to escape getting killed by al-Qaeda-linked groups.

Most of the refugees are Syrian Kurds who are fleeing attacks by foreign-backed Takfiri militants in the country.

The Iraqi government has pledged to grant more than USD12 million to the Kurdistan region in order to help cover the refugees' basic needs. The International Union for Muslim Scholars has also made some donations.

On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that more than 30,000 Syrians have crossed the border into the Kurdistan region over the past week.

It also said that an estimated 5,000 Syrians entered Iraq's Kurdistan region on Monday alone.

The UNHCR spokesman, Peter Kessler, said that the UN had dispatched 2,100 tents, two prefabricated warehouses, and water containers for the refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Kessler further described the influxes of the Syrian refugees as the biggest since November 2012 when approximately 9,000 Syrians crossed into Turkey.

Syria has been gripped by a deadly unrest since March 2011.

The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed and a total of 7.8 million others displaced since the outbreak of the violence.