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Over 160,000 people displaced from Iraq's Mosul in three months: IOM

Xinhua, January 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported Tuesday that 160,836 people had been forced to flee Mosul and its adjacent districts since military operations to recapture the one of the Islamic State's (IS) last strongholds began on Oct. 17 last year.

According to the latest IOM displacement figures, over 16,200 people have been displaced in the last four days alone.

Most of the displaced, about 73 percent, have found refuge in formal camps with the rest finding shelter in private settings, emergency sites and critical shelter arrangements.

IOM indicated that Al-Hamdaniya district in Ninewa governorate is hosting most of the internally displaced people, followed by Mosul and Al-Shikhan.

Supported by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Iraqi troops launched operations last October to reclaim the city, which fell into IS hands in June 2014.

According to reports, more than 5,000 IS militants were initially holed up in Mosul.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) had warned before the military campaign began that as many as 1.2 million people could be displaced as a result of the fighting. Endit