According to a staff member from the International Organization for Migration, between 2,000 and 3,000 people arrived Wednesday night and Thursday morning at a converted youth center in Ainkawa, a Christian town on the outskirts of the Kurdish capital of Erbil.
The staff member added that thousands of other Christians were reported to have sought protection with local families in Erbil and other Kurdish cities.
The Globe and Mail noted that Iraqi Christians were fleeing an attack by the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters on Qaraqosh, a historic Christian town outside the city of Mosul.
Sunni extremist ISIL fighters have made stunning advances in Iraq, seizing the cities of Mosul and Tikrit, as well as border crossings to neighboring Jordan and Syria.
Qaraqosh residents as well as Kurdish officials said that ISIL fighters attacked Qaraqosh which had been under the joint protection of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and local Christian militiamen, stating that several mortar rounds landed in Qaraqosh, the town of 50,000 citizens, provoking a mass exodus.
Until Wednesday evening, Qaraqosh had been seen as a safe haven for Christians fleeing violence and persecution in Mosul and other cities, one of the officials said, pointing out that residents had moved there following a wave of murders and threats targeting Mosul’s Christians in 2008.
A representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Ainkawa, Ano Jawhar Abdoka, said that additional Peshmerga fighters had been sent to defend Qaraqosh on Thursday, emphasizing that it’s not clear how many residents remain in the town.
Meanwhile, the rapid advance of ISIL fighters has created fuel shortages in the Kurdish north.
A UNICEF spokesperson in Iraq said the situation in the said country has become very stressful, adding that the Kurdish economy and resources are being strained.
The spokesperson also mentioned that half of all refugees in the Kurdish areas are believed to be under the age of 17, while 20 percent are under 5 years old.