BAGHDAD - The number of Iraqi families driven from their homes by sectarian violence is rising rapidly, officials said Tuesday, with more than 300,000 people already displaced around the country.
The number of families forced to flee as their neighborhoods fall prey to bombers, militias and sectarian death squads has hit 51,000, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement.
"Now there is forced displacement in Saba Al-Bor north of Baghdad, and the ministry has formed a council that will supervise the building of a camp for them," said Abd al-Samad Sultan, minister for the displaced.
Within Baghdad, he said, almost 9,000 families have been displaced, as Sunnis quit Shiite east Baghdad and vice-versa.
The figure is based on the number of displaced families that have registered with the ministry and could in reality be much higher, as many of those living in the most violent areas either cannot register or do not trust the government.
For example, Shiite families fleeing south to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf -- which have escaped the worst of the fighting -- are included, but Sunnis driven out of the lawless and war torn Anbar province are largely not.
Middle class emigres who managed to go abroad are also not registered.
According to the ministry measure of six people per family, at least 306,000 people have been displaced since the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra sparked a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites.
Minority groups in mixed neighborhoods and towns were attacked resulting in the "cleansing" of many towns and areas around the country.
The latest figures show a substantial rise from an assessment in June by the International Organization of Migration that put the number of displaced families at 18,000, and the government's figure of 27,000 in July.
10/10/2006 13:01 GMT