BAGHDAD — The Shiite militia's threat came in a typed letter tossed at Mohammed Abdul-Wahab's door: "Leave this house within 48 hours or you will face death."
The Sunni government worker did just that — fleeing his ancestral home in a mostly Shiite area of Baghdad with his wife and 2-year-old son.
Now, struggling to pay rent higher than his salary, Abdul-Wahab is among the nearly 2.3 million people the Iraqi Red Crescent says have been driven from their neighborhoods as Iraq is increasingly carved up along sectarian lines.
The number of internally displaced people has swelled in Iraq since the beginning of 2007, when the group counted less than half a million.
A new report issued Monday by the Iraqi Red Crescent shows that such people now outnumber Iraqis who have fled to the country altogether for neighboring states like Syria and Jordan.
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The rise came despite a sharp drop in bombings, shootings and other violence more than four months after the U.S. completed a 30,000-strong force buildup here. American and Iraqi death tolls have also fallen dramatically.
At least 17 Iraqis were killed or found dead Monday, police and morgue officials said.
On average, at least 56 Iraqis — civilians and security forces — have died each day so far in 2007, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.
Deadly rivalries have forced Shiites and Sunnis to flee once- diverse neighborhoods, leaving the city with clear boundaries between sects. More than 60 percent of those forced to flee were in Baghdad, the report said.
In Shiite-dominated Hurriyah in northwest Baghdad, fighting has subsided because there are no more Sunnis left to kill.
About 83 percent of the country's displaced people are women and children under the age of 12, the Red Crescent reported. Many are not able to find permanent housing.
"Children do not attend schools and are being sheltered in tents, abandoned government buildings with no water or electricity, mosques, churches, or with relatives," the report said. "In addition to their plight as being displaced, the majority suffer from disease, poverty and malnutrition."
Some 2.3 million Iraqis have been driven from their homes but remain inside the country's borders, according to the Red Crescent's most recent figures, through Sept. 30.
According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, some 2 million Iraqis have fled their country.
U.S. toll in Iraq
• Deaths: 3,845
• Wounded: 28,385
Latest identifications
• 2nd Lt. Tracy Lynn Alger, 30, of New Auburn, Wis.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
Source: Department of Defense as of Monday.
