Anbar repatriates 80% of displaced Iraqi families: official
Displaced families from Mosul
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Anbar province has repatriated 80 percent of its citizens who had been displaced by Islamic State militancy and counter military operations, according to a local official.
Rageh Barakat, a member of the province’s council, said in a press statement that the scarcity of financial allocations remain an impediment to restoring services.
The war against Islamic State militants, who took over large areas of Iraq in 2014, has displaced nearly three million people, according to Iraqi government figures.
The number of refugees from Nineveh, Kirkuk’s Hawija and Salahuddin’s Shirqat since the launch of anti-Islamic State operations in 2016 has reached 1.074.91, Migration and Displacement Minister Jassem al-Jaff, said last earlier this month.
The Iraqi government plans to repatriate all refugees by the end of 2017, according to earlier statements by migration officials.
Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, recaptured Mosul from IS militants early July.
Last week, the government launched a last campaign to retake Islamic State’s remaining holdouts in Anbar, Kirkuk and Salahuddin.
Iraqi forces, backed by tribal troops and coalition aircraft, have recently recaptured Anbar’s town of Annah, a major Islamic State bastion, and are eyeing two other neighboring havens: Rawa and Qaim.