Middle East News

Feb 26, 2009, 17:12 GMT

About 500,000 Iraqis to return home as security improves

New York - The Iraqi government said Thursday that an estimated 500,000 Iraqis were expected to return home this year because of the improving security situation in the country. Iraq's UN Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati said last month's successful provincial elections were proof of his government's democratic progress. He said Iraq's Minister of Displacement and Migration Abduk Samad Rahman Sultan was recently in Syria and would visit Egypt and Lebanon to coordinate the return of Iraqis who fled when US troops invaded their country in March 2003, to topple dictator Saddam Hussein. About 220,000 Iraqis returned last year and 500,000 were expected this year. Up to 2 million Iraqis have taken refuge in neighbouring countries, Europe and the United States since 2003. 'The acceleration of improvement in the security situation in Baghdad and other provinces has helped to return life to a normal pace in most areas,' al-Bayati said in an address to an open session of the UN Security Council convened to discuss the situation in Iraq. Baghdad has signed an agreement to terminate the presence of US armed forces in Iraq by 2011, but the administration of President Barack Obama apparently wants the US to withdraw sooner.

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