BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday his government has allocated more than $850 million to assist those displaced by last month’s militant takeover of much of the country, and called on Sunnis remaining in those areas to take up arms against the insurgents.
In his weekly address, al-Maliki said his Cabinet is exerting huge efforts to ease the suffering of displaced people, mostly Shiites and Christians who were driven out by last month’s lightning offensive waged by the extremist Islamic State group and allied militants. He said two installments of 500 billion dinars ($429 million) each have been allocated to aid the internally displaced.
“We are sad for what our people are undergoing, but the government has taken decisions, spent money in an unlimited way and formed a ministerial committee to deliver aid and take care of the displaced people,” he said.
The rapid advance by the extremist group, which captured Iraq’s second-largest city Mosul and overran much of northern and western Iraq, plunged the country into its worst crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of 2011, with more than 1 million Iraqis now classified as internally displaced or refugees.
The Sunni militants have carved out a large expanse of land straddling the Iraq-Syria border and declared a self-styled Islamic caliphate. But their offensive eventually slowed upon reaching predominantly Shiite areas of Iraq.