Many Christians who fled Mosul have returned-UNHCR
GENEVA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Many Iraqi Christian families who fled Mosul last month have returned home, reassured by a large Iraqi security presence in the northern city, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
Some 2,000 families, an estimated 12,000 people, fled Mosul after a campaign of threats and attacks against the Christian community in the ethnically and religiously mixed city began in early October.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials visited villages in Al Hamdaniya, a district east of Mosul, on Monday and found that about a third of the 1,000 families that left the area had returned to their homes.
"Displaced families began to return about a week ago, with assurances from their Arab neighbours about improved security in the city, which has seen a beefed-up presence by Iraqi security forces," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news conference.
Others seem to be commuting from outlying villages, he said.
Returnee families are to receive a government cash grant of up to $800. But UNHCR's Redmond said that "many do not register for fear of exposure or uncertainty of their return".
The Christian exodus from Mosul, which was concentrated in the second and third weeks of October, began after around 12 Christians were reported killed. Others received death threats and several Christian homes were targeted in bomb attacks.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Mosul, where tensions between its Sunni Muslim Arab majority and a politically powerful Kurdish minority have been on the rise.
Mosul is seen as one of the few remaining strongholds for Sunni Islamist al Qaeda despite years of fighting with U.S. and Iraqi forces. At least a dozen different insurgent groups are thought to be operating in the city. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
