Karbala Shiites welcome Anbar's displaced Sunni families

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Osama al-Shami, deputy head of Karbala's Shiite endowments authority, has said that families fleeing Iraq's predominantly-Sunni Anbar province, which has been rocked by violence since last week, would be welcomed in the southeastern Shiite-majority province.

Dozens of displaced families – including many women and children – have flocked to the city of Karbala, where they have been given shelter in the part of the city usually reserved for pilgrims, al-Shami told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

Observers have noted the significance of Karbala's Shiite endowment authority offering shelter to Sunni refugees amid ongoing sectarian tension in Iraq.

Al-Shami, a prominent Shiite scholar, told AA that the initiative was aimed at challenging "those who seek to tear the nation's social fabric" by instigating sectarian strife.

In Karbala, displaced Sunni families have received food, transportation and healthcare services, according to al-Shami, who added that the city was still able to accommodate more families fleeing Anbar.

He went on to express hope that the situation would soon stabilize so that afflicted families might safely return to their homes in Anbar.

Earlier this week, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov said that around 5,000 people had fled the ongoing violence in Anbar to neighboring provinces.

He described the current humanitarian situation in Anbar as "critical," warning that it could deteriorate further if violence continued.

Local tribesmen later expressed their support for local police against Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen who had claimed that they had established control over the province's two main cities, Ramadi and Fallujah.

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