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Fighting displaces tens of thousands of IraqisBomb kills 15 near Baghdad; blasts reported at Baquba mosque
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes for safer parts of the country has more than doubled in two weeks to 65,000, the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration said Thursday. A ministry spokesman reported a twofold jump from the 30,000 internal refugees estimated on March 30. The ministry put the number of families on the move at 10,991. People are receiving warning leaflets. " 'Leave now, without taking any of your belongings. Take only your clothes,' these warnings say," according to Said Hakki, chairman of the Iraq Red Crescent Society. An elderly woman at a camp in Falluja said she knows a family whose door was recently pushed in. The perpetrators were wearing black outfits or National Guard uniforms, the woman said. "They all had masks on," she said. "They dragged her husband. They handcuffed him and took him away." Most of the refugees are women and children, said another Red Crescent official. "We are very concerned about communicable diseases in the camps that have formed, like cholera and typhoid," the official said. "This exponential increase of refugees is quite disturbing." Some camps are run by Sunnis, others by Shiites. Some are even run by militias. In Baghdad, at least two camps are operated by Mehdi militias, loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Asked to describe the camps, Hakki had nothing positive to say. "I saw the fear in the children's eyes, the uncertainty in the mothers' eyes and the pathetic look of the men that they are hopeless and helpless to do anything," he said. The U.N. refugee agency has published reports putting the number of refugees fleeing the country altogether at several hundred thousand. It is not clear how many of those may have subsequently returned. Violence plagues IraqHostilities between Shiites and Sunnis have escalated since the February 22 bombing of Al-Askariya Mosque, a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra. On Thursday night, a car bomb killed 15 people and wounded 22 others in a majority-Shiite area near Baghdad, Iraqi police said. The attack happened in Sab' al Boor, 6 miles (10 kilometers) north of the capital, police said. Also Thursday night, blasts were reported at a Shiite mosque in Baquba, 37 miles (60 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police said. Bombers placed explosives around the dome of the Imam al Sharif Al Radhey shrine and detonated them, police said. Shiite pilgrims frequently visit the shrine. It's unclear if there were any casualties. The blasts occurred less than a week after a massive suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Baghdad killed 81 people and wounded 160. In addition, the brother of a prominent Sunni Arab politician was killed Thursday in Baghdad, police said. Mahmood al-Hashimi was gunned down while driving with a friend on a major highway, police sources said. His brother, Tariq al-Hashimi, is secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party. The violence comes amid a deadlock by Iraqi leaders over the formation of a national unity government, a step the United States considers necessary before its troops can begin to pull out. Three U.S. soldiers dieA roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier Thursday southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The blast is under investigation. In addition, the military reported the deaths of two U.S. soldiers on patrol in the Rahwah area. One was killed by a suicide bomber Tuesday, the other by a roadside bomb Saturday, the military said. Both soldiers belonged to the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The number of U.S. troops and military civilians who have died in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion stands at 2,367. So far in April, 39 service members have been killed, exceeding the 31 who died during all of March. Mortar attacks Thursday also wounded 15 Marines about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of Falluja, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were building an observation post for the Iraqi army when insurgents attacked, military officials said. Falluja safer, citizens and police sayMeanwhile in Falluja, the police celebrated the grand opening of new headquarters Thursday. Residents told CNN that they trust the largely Sunni police force more than the Iraqi army, which is mostly Shiite. Police said the city, once known as one of Iraq's most violent, has become safe enough that a few hundred families have moved into the area to escape sectarian violence elsewhere in the country. "We're not police officers in Falluja. We're doctors trying to heal our country," said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Salah al-Ami, the police chief. Other developmentsCNN's Cal Perry and Arwa Damon contributed to this report. Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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