Nearly 1,700 Syrian Kurds seek refuge in Iraq

GENEVA: The United Nations said on Friday that nearly 1,700 people, most of them women and children, had fled fighting in northeastern Syria and crossed into Iraq in recent days.

"For the fourth consecutive day, UNHCR ... has been receiving hundreds of refugees crossing the border into Iraq from northeast Syria," UN refugee agency spokesman Andrej Mahecic told reporters in Geneva.

He first said that "over 1,600 Syrian refugees have been transported from the border areas to Bardarash refugee camp", about 150-km east of the Syria-Iraq border, adding though that another 734 people had been registered crossing the border overnight.