Displaced in Iraq reach 2.3 million

BAGHDAD, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The Iraq Red Crescent Society says the number of Iraqis displaced by violent conflict in the country has grown to 2.3 million.

The humanitarian group's report said 67,000 families fled their homes in September, adding to the number of displaced that has multiplied by a factor of five over the course of 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Switzerland-based International Organization for Migration said the conflict surrounding Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq along the country's borders with Turkey and Iran has caused many refugees who fled north to escape sectarian violence to seek refuge in nearby cities, driving up rent costs and bringing about widespread evictions and forced prostitution.

Dana Graber Ladek, the migration group's Iraq displacement specialist, said the shelling of the Kurdish separatists, which ended last month, caused about 1,000 families -- including large numbers of Sunni Muslims and Christians -- to flee the Iranian border.

The group said an additional 2,000 to 10,000 families may flee the Turkish border amid threats of a Turkish incursion against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq.