Baghdad soccer stadium to house Iraqis fleeing Sadr City violence

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) - A top official in Baghdad said the capital's biggest stadium is one of three locations being prepped for residents fleeing Baghdad's Sadr City, where Iraqi and U.S. forces have been fighting Shiite militants for weeks.

Tahseen al-Sheikhly, the civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, said Shaab Stadium, a soccer stadium; a smaller stadium; and another facility in Baghdad are being prepared. So far, he said, no more than 400 families have fled the war-torn neighborhood since the fighting began in late March. There have been reports that thousands of people have fled.

Those families that are leaving, he said, are residents who have been cooperating with security forces, kin of security forces who have been threatened, and people who have been "held hostage by the criminal gangs."