Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million in humanitarian aid for Iraq Tuesday, to be disbursed through the United Nations to those in need regardless of sect or ethnicity, state media reported.
King Abdullah "has ordered $500 million in humanitarian aid to the brotherly people of Iraq affected by the painful events, including the displaced, regardless of their religion, sect, or ethnicity," a Foreign Ministry spokesman told the official SPA news agency.
The United Nations says 1.2 million Iraqis have been driven from their homes by violence this year, hundreds of thousands of them by a 3-week-old Sunni militant offensive that has swept up a swathe of territory north of Baghdad, AFP reported.