UN launching major aid operation for half a million in northern Iraq

GENEVA: The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday it was launching a major aid operation to get supplies to more than half a million people displaced by fighting in northern Iraq.

A four-day airlift of tents and other goods will begin on Wednesday to Arbil, Iraq from Aqaba in Jordan, followed by road convoys from Turkey and Jordan and sea shipments from Dubai via Iran over the next 10 days, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said.

"This is a very, very significant aid push and certainly one of the largest I can recall in quite a while," Edwards told a news briefing in Geneva. "This is a major humanitarian crisis and disaster. It continues to affect many people."