(video) Thousands flee as Iraqi forces attack Daesh-held Tal Afar
خبرگزاری مدار شرقی Thousands of Iraqis have fled to Iraq’s Kurdish region as the battle has begun to take the city of Tal Afar from the Daesh terrorist group. The Norwegian Refugee Council said on Saturday that refugees near the northern city of Tal Afar were faced with harsh conditions, and were stopped by authorities […]
Thousands of Iraqis have fled to Iraq’s Kurdish region as the battle has begun to take the city of Tal Afar from the Daesh terrorist group.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said on Saturday that refugees near the northern city of Tal Afar were faced with harsh conditions, and were stopped by authorities in east of Mosul and Kurdish areas as they tried to flee the fighting, Al Jazeera reported.
“It’s very hard for them to move through,” Melany Markham, a spokesman of the humanitarian group, told Al Jazeera, adding that one transit site was already at full capacity, and could not take more refugees.
She said that temperatures in the height of summer of between 45 and 50 degrees Celcius make journeys even more challenging.
Markham said that while their transit site in Hammam al-Alil is full, other camps such as in Khazar, west of the Kurdish city of Erbil, could accommodate up to 40,000 refugees.
An estimated 50,000 people have fled the areas surrounding Tal Afar since April, and at least 50,000 more could flee in the coming days and weeks, according to aid groups.
That number is in addition to the estimated one million refugees who have fled Mosul.