108,000 Iraqis flee homes in last month - official

BAGHDAD, Dec 28 (Reuters) More than 108,000 Iraqis have left their homes and registered as refugees in the last month, a senior official said today.

Since the February 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine that sparked a wave of sectarian killings between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis, about 432,000 Iraqis have fled their homes, Deputy Migration Minister Hamdiya Ahmad told Reuters.

''The main reason behind the rise of displaced families is the deterioration of the security situation and the death threats that people have received to flee their houses, in addition to the bombing of safe areas,'' she said.

In Baghdad alone, 42,000 Iraqis have left their homes since the bombing of Samarra. Baghdad has a population of seven million.

The government acknowledges many people do not register with the ministry or have fled abroad, and so are not counted in these statistics.

Ahmad said a large majority of people who have fled their homes come from farmland in the outskirts of Baghdad.

The Shi'ite Middle Euphrates region of Kerbala and Najaf, and the Shi'ite southern provinces have received the largest number of refugees, she said.

The ministry estimates the average Iraqi family at six people. It gave a total of 72,000 families as having fled their homes since the Samarra bombing.

REUTERS PDM KN1921