Nearly 1,000 Afghan refugees reach the border

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in Iran confirmed to IRIN on Wednesday that almost 1,000 Afghan refugees had arrived on Iran's southeastern border and were staying in one of the two camps run by the Iranian Red Crescent Society, inside Afghanistan. The influx is the largest along the Iranian border since US-led strikes on Afghanistan began on 7 October. "In the last 24 hours, the amount of Afghans in the Mahkaki refugee camp has increased significantly," Mohammad Nouri, the UNHCR spokesman in the Iranian capital, Tehran, said. "Since Tuesday the population of the camp has risen from 600 to 1,570," he added. According to Nouri, the Mahkaki camp in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province is located two kilometres inside Afghan territory, while the second camp, Mile 46, accommodating about 600 Afghans, is located seven kilometres within Afghanistan. However, according to Nouri, no population movement or influx into the northeastern province of Khorasan had been recorded. Meanwhile, the United Nations on Wednesday confirmed that air strikes against the western Afghan city of Herat had sent civilians fleeing. According to the report, some 70 percent of the population had fled to surrounding villages following the air strikes, which included the use of cluster bombs. According to Stephanie Bunker, UN spokeswoman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, the strikes, which began on Monday night and continued into the following morning, prompted fearful villagers to visit the UN-supported Mine Action Centre. "They told the Mine Action Centre that many bomblets were littering their village, and that they were afraid and could not leave their houses," she said. "Villagers do have a lot to be afraid of, as these bomblets, if they did not explode on impact, are very dangerous and can explode if touched," Dan Kelly, the manager of the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan, said. There are normally as many as 200 bomblets in each cluster bomb. The bomblets contain a small shaped charge, which provides the explosive energy to puncture 125 millimetres of armoured steel, according to Kelly. "When the bomblet explodes, it splits up into hundreds of high velocity pieces of shrapnel, each travelling at the speed of a bullet," he said. In addition, these munitions will ignite any combustible materials in the immediate vicinity. Herat is the largest city in western Afghanistan and the closest urban centre to the Iranian border.