Iraq’s Maliki offers $850M to people displaced by sectarian violence

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday that his government has allocated more than $850 million to assist those displaced by the recent armed takeover of much of the country by the Islamic State (IS) and called on those remaining in areas under the group's control to take up the fight against the insurgents.

He spoke in a weekly address delivered hours before car bombs in two mostly Shia neighborhoods in Baghdad killed 23 people and wounded scores more as residents tried to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Maliki said his Cabinet is exerting huge efforts to ease the suffering of displaced people, mostly Shias and Christians who were driven out by last month's lightning offensive waged by the Sunni-led Islamic State group and allied fighters. He said two installments of $429 million each have been allocated to aid the internally displaced.

"We are sad for what our people are undergoing, but the government has taken decisions, spent money in an unlimited way and formed a ministerial committee to deliver aid and take care of the displaced people," he said.

The rapid advance by the extremist group, which captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and overran much of northern and western Iraq, plunged the country into its worst crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of 2011, with more than a million Iraqis now classified as internally displaced or refugees.

In Mosul, IS told Christians either to convert, pay a tax or “face the sword.” With that ultimatum, thousands of Christians fled, leaving most of what they own behind. They made their way to Erbil in the Kurdish-controlled region in the north, as well as the Christian city of Qaraqosh, southeast of Mosul and also under the protection of the Kurdish peshmerga fighters.

The Sunni militants have carved out a large expanse of land straddling the Iraq-Syria border and declared a self-styled Islamic caliphate. But their offensive eventually slowed upon reaching predominantly Shia areas of Iraq.

Maliki called on those living in Sunni-majority areas overrun by the insurgents to fight back. "I say to the people of these areas, your participation in clearing these areas has become essential and necessary," he said.

This week, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of 5,000 Hellfire missiles to Iraq as the country tries to battle the Islamic State. The deal, valued at $700 million, also comes as the U.S. announced Wednesday that it would boost the number of surveillance flights over Iraq to nearly 50 a day, up from just one a month.

As Maliki, a Shia who has led Iraq since 2006, makes moves to combat IS, he is facing pressure not to run for a third four-year term, despite his bloc winning the most votes in April's parliamentary election.

Many in Iraq accuse Maliki's Shia-led government of helping fuel the crisis by failing to promote reconciliation with the Sunni Muslim minority. Maliki's critics say he has become too polarizing a figure to unite the country and face down the extremist threat.

Shortly before sunset Wednesday, a car bomb exploded near a line of small restaurants in Baghdad's Shia neighborhood of Sadr City, killing 15 people and wounding 28, police officials said. Several shops and cars burned in the explosion.

Later a car bomb exploded near a falafel restaurant in the Shia district of al-Amin in eastern Baghdad, killing eight people and wounding 20 others, said police.

The Baghdad attacks were apparently targeting people celebrating the holiday, according to the police.

In the western Anbar province, much of which is controlled by armed fighters, police said a car bomb blast near the local council building in al-Baghdadi town killed three people and wounded nine. Al-Baghdadi, which is still held by the government, is about 110 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Hospital officials confirmed casualty figures for the attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

Al Jazeera and wire services