INTERVIEW-Arab states urged to let in Palestinians from Iraq

Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters

A U.N. refugee agency appealed to Arab governments on Tuesday to take in 600 Palestinians who have been stranded for months at the Iraqi-Syrian border after fleeing persecution in Baghdad. "We appeal to their common sense and generosity to allow them in. Having pregnant women, children and newborn babies there under snow and rain is no solution," Panos Moumtzis, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Syria, told Reuters. "What they told us is that they have experienced horrific human rights abuses in Iraq. Some of them were arrested, tortured and beaten up. Others have lost family members who were killed during interrogation or during attacks," Moumtzis said...

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27 Palestinians abducted in Baghdad on Tuesday

Palestinian sources have said that 27 Palestinian refugees were kidnapped in several areas of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad on Tuesday morning. The sources added that the kidnappers were masked and wearing Iraqi ministry of interior uniforms. They arrived in 15 official cars and a bus in order to transport the abducted Palestinians. The forces broke into one of the buildings where the Palestinians were living and broke the doors. Reports also say that they attacked some of the women in their homes and dragged them along the ground through the streets. 27 men, including old people, were reportedly abducted in this latest aggression on the remaining members of the Palestinian community in Baghdad...

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