Over 30,000 Kurds in Syria flee to Iraq

Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds swarmed across a bridge into neighboring Iraq’s northern self-ruled Kurdish region over the past few days in one of the biggest waves of refugees since the rebellion against President Bashar Assad began, U.N. officials said Monday.

The sudden exodus of around 30,000 Syrians amid the summer heat has created desperate conditions and left aid agencies and the regional government struggling to accommodate them, illustrating the huge strain the 2½-year-old Syrian conflict has put on neighboring countries.

The mostly Kurdish men, women and children who made the trek join some 1.9 million Syrians who already have found refuge abroad from Syria’s relentless carnage.