Iraq approves new refugee camp for fleeing Syrians

QAMISHLI, Iraq – Kurdish officials are opening a second refugee camp to shelter a growing number of Syrians fleeing the bloody uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Local lawmakers in Iraq's Dahuk province voted Wednesday to open the camp. The object is to ease overcrowding at the first one in the small village of Qamishli.

Dahuk immigration director Mohammed Abdullah Hammo said several hundred Syrians are in Qamishli. He did not have an exact count.

He said most of them are Syrian Kurds who are trying to avoid being pulled into the struggle between Assad's regime and opposition forces.

Qamishli is located about 35 miles east of the Syrian border in northwest Iraq.