Some 300,000 Iraqis from areas taken over by the barbaric fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have fled to “safe zones’’ in Kurdish-controlled territory, UN officials report.
Although living in cramped, uncomfortable conditions, they’re the most fortunate of the million or so Iraqi refugees. They at least didn’t fall into the hands of the Sunni-led Islamic State militants, who have been slaughtering Shiites and other Muslims who oppose their brutal tactics.
Life among the Kurds, however, has not been a picnic.
Some have been invited to stay in homes, schools and churches, but many others are in refugee camps, sleeping on dirt floors and cramming into makeshift tents to escape the heat.
“Displacement comes with really dire needs,” UN spokeswoman Juliette Touma told The Post from Erbil, the largest city in Kurdish-controlled territory.
“The families I saw were coming with nothing, no bags, just the clothes on their bodies.”
Basic needs — like toothpaste, soap, diapers and clean water — are hard to come by, and doctors fear a possible outbreak of polio.
Just last week, 10,000 mostly Christian families flooded into Erbil. Among them was a woman named Barbara.
“She heard bombing — that triggered the whole move for her. That’s why she was scared,” said Touma. “She said to me, ‘I’m 60 years old. I didn’t think this would happen to me.’ ”
The UN estimates that a quarter-million of the displaced are children. One of them, Diana, 8, begged her mom, Hiba, to run from advancing Islamic State militias.
“She kept saying, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!’ ” Touma said.
The heartbroken mother told Touma, “For years and years, we were known to be hosting people fleeing violence all over the country. Now look at us — we’ve become those exact people.”
Many Iraqis had to walk for days to get to Kurdish areas, including nine-months-pregnant Rasha. She and her mother-in-law said they hope someone will take them in. “Otherwise, we will sleep in a park,” Rasha said.
In other developments:
- The Islamic State officially declared a “caliphate’’ consisting of the territory it now holds. Its goal is to assert dominion over all Muslims on Earth.
- Iraqi forces continued an offensive against Islamic State rebels who seized Tikrit. But heavy resistance forced the government troops to pull back.