Iraq has agreed to move 3,100 Iranian Kurd refugees, who have been stuck in harsh and dangerous conditions near Ramadi, to a safer area in the north, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) welcomed the "breakthrough", as Al Tash camp has been virtually cut off from aid since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 of Iraq due to insecurity, spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis said. Another 3,200 refugees who fled Al Tash camp last November after militants attacked its police station have already moved to the Sulaimaniya area in Iraq's northern Kurdish region, according to Reuters. "We have just been informed that the Iraqi Prime Minister's office has approved a proposed plan to relocate Al Tash camp's remaining population -- some 3,100 people -- to a much safer location near Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq," Pagonis told a news briefing. Al Tash, set up more than 20 years ago, is 60 km (37 miles) from Falluja and 12 km (7.5 miles) from Ramadi, both Sunni cities in central Iraq where U.S.-led forces have been battling an insurgency. UNCHR says most of the Iranians fled their homeland during Iran-Iraq war of 1980s, and some also fled during the Gulf War.
