SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Escalating sectarian violence elsewhere in Iraq has driven thousands of Arabs to flee to Kurdistan.
Kurds have mixed feelings about the influx, The New York Times reports. The Kurdish newspaper Awene, for example, favors providing segregated housing for Arabs.
"Of course, everybody supports those people who have left their lands and their homes because of violence, but we don't want it at the expense of giving up our land or changing the demographics of our land," said Awene's editor, Asos Hardi.
Most of the Sunnis and Shiites driven out of their homes have moved to enclaves where their group is dominant. Some have left the country.
But others feel safe in Kurdistan. One -- surprisingly, the newspaper said -- is Sabah Abdul Rahman, a Sunni Arab from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, and a former member of Saddam's intelligence service. He and his family have moved to Sulaimaniya.
"This is the only safe place in all of Iraq," he said. "There's terrorism elsewhere and the presence of the Americans."
