More than 7,000 Syrians fled from their country to Iraq since last Monday amid the Turkish military operation in the northeast of the Arab republic, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesman Andrej Mahecic said at a briefing on Tuesday
GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2019) More than 7,000 Syrians fled from their country to Iraq since last Monday amid the Turkish military operation in the northeast of the Arab republic, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesman Andrej Mahecic said at a briefing on Tuesday.
"A week after the first refugees crossed from northeast Syria into Iraq, the arrivals to northern Iraq continue. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, teams on the ground report that as of this morning, more than 7,100 have arrived since last Monday. Most of them � just under 7,000 � are sheltered at the Bardarash refugee camp, some 140 kilometers [86.9 miles] east of the Iraqi-Syrian border," Mahecic said, as quoted by the UNHCR press release.
The majority of refugees are women and children, and many of them are in need of psycho-social aid, Mahecic said.
According to the UNHCR, the overall amount of Syrian refugees in Iraq currently stands at about 229,000.
Turkey launched the controversial cross-border offensive in northern Syria on October 9 in an attempt to build a safe zone and clear the area of the Kurdish forces, which Ankara says are affiliated with a terrorist group. The offensive has faced widespread condemnation from across the globe.
The operation is currently nearing the end of a 120-hour ceasefire agreement that Ankara reached with Washington on Thursday. Turkey is expected to announce its next steps on the offensive later in the day, following talks between Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
