Move to evict Baghdad squatters

Some have tried to return to their homes, only to find them occupied

Iraqi security forces have begun an operation in the capital, Baghdad, to evict squatters from houses abandoned by people who fled sectarian violence.

Squatters who fail to vacate the houses could face up to three years in prison.

The move is part of a government effort to encourage refugees to return to the neighbourhoods and re-occupy their homes after a recent fall in violence.

The UN says more than 2 million people are displaced inside Iraq, mostly from Baghdad. Two million have fled abroad.

A limited number of refugees have already attempted to return home, mainly from Syria, which has absorbed about 1.5m Iraqis.

Prison threat

As a result of the sectarian violence that has plagued Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 many people in Baghdad fled, often following threats by militant groups, to areas where their religious groups were in the majority.

Gunmen came into my home, killed my husband and destroyed my house - Am I supposed to live on the street? Squatter in Baghdad's Hurriya district

With the number of sectarian killings falling since last year's US troop surge, the Iraqi government is keen to re-establish mixed neighbourhoods and has said it will spend some $195m to help displaced families re-settle.

Some have already attempted to return to their neighbourhoods, only to find their homes occupied.

Iraqi forces were therefore instructed by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to evict squatters from such homes, a military statement said.

"In the past few days, 275 families have returned to Hay al-Adel and Jamiyah," two predominantly Sunni neighbourhoods from which Shia residents had been expelled, it added.

Squatters who fail to vacate the houses could face three years in prison and a fine. Those in official buildings face harsher sentences.

Some, however, said they had no home to which they could return.

"I'm the wife of a martyr, and these are my children. Gunmen came into my home, killed my husband and destroyed my house," said one woman, originally from the northern city of Diyala, who has been living in the Baghdad district of Hurriya.

"Am I supposed to live on the street?" she asked.