Iraqi women forced into sexual slavery since war

More than 2,000 Iraqi women have gone missing since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

More than 2,000 Iraqi women thought to have been forced into sexual slavery have gone missing since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a women's group told Time magazine.

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The Organisation for Women's Freedom in Iraq, based in Baghdad, based its figure on anecdotal evidence and the magazine said no one knew the true figure because of the country's troubles.

The issue of Time that goes on sale on Monday quoted a Western official in Baghdad, who monitors the status of women in Iraq, as saying that the figure may be inflated while admitting that sex trafficking has become a "serious issue".

A US State Department report on human trafficking released in June 2005 said that an unknown number of Iraqi women and girls had been sent to Yemen, Syria, Jordan and Gulf countries for sexual exploitation.