BAGHDAD, Aug. 23 An aid group says the number of Iraqis fleeing to sectarian enclaves has doubled since the U.S. troop surge began, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The Iraqi Red Crescent Organization reports there are now 1.1 million internally displaced people in the country, up from 499,000 in February. The group's figures do not include Iraqis who have crossed the border to Syria and Jordan.
The exodus has increased societal divisions, emptying out mixed Sunni-Shiite areas. Generally, Shiites have moved south, while Sunnis have gone to the Sunni triangle.
A woman who identified herself only as Aswadi said her family would not return to its Baghdad neighborhood after being targeted by Shiite snipers.
"There is no way we would go back," the woman told the Times. "It is a city of ghosts. The only people left there are terrorists."
The Red Crescent figures match those gathered by the U.N. migration office. U.N. workers found that 25 percent of the displaced said they had been removed by force.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
