Thousands of Kurdish refugees from Syria find shelter in a new refugee camp in northern Iraq

(29 Aug 2013) UN officials say more than 44-thousand refugees have poured into Iraq's northern Kurdish region since August 15, when Kurdish officials opened access to a bridge leading from Syria. Aid workers have described the surge as one of the biggest waves of refugees since the start of the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2011. The influx in new arrivals has pushed the number of Syrian refugees in Iraq to roughly 200 thousand, 97 percent of whom are in the Kurdish region, according to UN figures. The sudden exodus of Syrians amid the summer heat has created desperate conditions and left aid agencies and the regional government struggling to accommodate them. The overcrowded Domiz refugee camp, a vast tent city hosting tens of thousands already, can not accommodate more people. Local authorities are in the process of opening other camps around the Kurdish region. Ten days ago the area of the Kawergosk camp was no more than just a piece of land. Now it hosts some 15-thousand Kurdish refugees recently arrived from Syria. Most of these refugees left Syrian out of fear of the armed Syrian opposition groups like the FSA or Jabhat Al-Nusra. The militias have been fighting for control of parts of northern and northeastern Syria in recent months against Kurdish groups, which have taken advantage of the anti-Assad rebellion to assert their control over majority-Kurdish areas. Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria have been engulfed by fighting in recent months between Kurdish militias and Islamic extremist rebel factions. The president of Iraq's Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, earlier this month vowed to defend the large Kurdish population in Syria from al-Qaida-linked rebel fighters, though there is no indication for now that the regional government plans to deploy Kurdish fighters across the border. Doing so would further strain fraught relations with the central government in Baghdad and anger neighbouring Turkey. More than 25 million Kurds live in parts of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Many hope to one day carve out an independent homeland of their own. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...