Syrian forces reportedly shell bread line in Aleppo
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Syria crisis: Thousands of refugees flee violence
Lebanese officials say thousands of refugees are pouring over the eastern Masnaa crossing
Thousands of Syrian refugees are pouring into neighbouring countries as fighting between government forces and rebels intensifies.
The UN refugee agency says up to 30,000 people are reported to have crossed into Lebanon over the past 48 hours...
...Journalists were allowed into Midan on Friday, and pictures showed dust-covered corpses lying in the streets, with tanks and burnt-out cars littering the area.
Activists said fierce fighting was also taking place in Syria's second city, Aleppo.
In other developments:
- Syria's national security chief Hisham Ikhtiar has died from injuries received in Wednesday's attack on the national security bureau, state TV announced, the fourth high-ranking fatality.
- Russia has agreed to delay a shipment of attack helicopters to Syria, the Interfax news agency reported.
- Russia's envoy to France has sparked a row by saying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was ready to step down.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday that between 8,500 and 30,000 Syrian refugees had crossed into Lebanon in the previous 48 hours.
One of the busiest crossing points is said to be at Masnaa, the main road link between the capitals of Beirut and Damascus.
At the scene
In the middle of the day, in the scorching heat of a Lebanese summer, a flood of Syrians has slowed to a trickle crossing the border.
Lebanese border guards said 18,000 crossed in the past 48 hours.
Yesterday, as fighting escalated in Damascus, the queue of vehicles waiting to enter stretched into the distance. Today the traffic is still a mix of expensive limousines and large, poorer, families on foot, dragging suitcases.
In an extended family of seven adults and five children, an anxious mother spoke of their fear.
"The children were very scared of loud explosions and shooting. We were prisoners in our home. We didn't know who to trust - the Free Syrian Army or the government," she said.
And then the family cheered at the sight of a pickup arriving to take them to the house of a grandfather in Lebanon.
Tens of thousands flee Syria as fighting surges
GENEVA |
Photograph: Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images
Syrian refugee children flash V-signs at a Turkish Red Crescent camp in the Altinozu district of Hatay, near the Syrian border
(Reuters) - Up to 30,000 Syrian refugees may have crossed into Lebanon in the past 48 hours...
Syrian refugee children flash V-signs at a Turkish Red Crescent camp in the Altinozu district of Hatay, near the Syrian border
(Reuters) - Up to 30,000 Syrian refugees may have crossed into Lebanon in the past 48 hours...
That would match the number of Syrians who already fled to Lebanon during the 16 months of fighting...
Thousands of Syrians crammed into vehicles lined up at the main crossing into Lebanon, roughly mid-way between Damascus and Beirut, before the outflow tapered off late on Friday afternoon as Ramadan began, Wilkes said.
A Lebanese security source told Reuters that 31,000 had arrived over the past two days, while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), citing Lebanese authorities, put the figure at 18,000 as of Thursday night.
"As soon as the extent of the influx became clear on 19 July (Thursday), the Lebanese Red Cross stationed an emergency medical team with three ambulances at the Masnaa border crossing, providing medical care and water," the ICRC said.
read more at: reuters
UN fears for safety of Iraqi refugees in Syria
This image made from amateur video released by Shaam News Network and accessed by the Associated Press Thursday, July 19, 2012 purports to show Syrian rebels cheering as a comrade defaces a poster of President Bashar Assad at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey. Syrian President Bashar Assad made his first appearance Thursday since a bomb killed some of his top lieutenants, looking calm and composed on state TV even as his forces turned parts of Damascus into combat zones and rebels seized two of the country's border crossings. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)
source: washington examiner
Iraqis flee Syria in droves, some by air
BAGHDAD (AP) – Thousands of Iraqi nationals have fled by land and air from Syria over the last two days to escape an escalating civil war, officials said Friday. The U.N.'s refugee agency said Iraqis may increasingly be targets of Syria's violence after a family of seven was gunned down in their apartment.
Iraqi officials said about 1,000 had left in eight flights from Damascus, which in the last week has seen its heaviest fighting in the country's 16-month uprising. Thousands more also poured through a major land crossing to Iraq despite the rebel takeover of one other major Syrian border post.
The U.N. refugee agency reported Friday that unknown gunmen shot dead an Iraqi refugee family of seven in their Damascus apartment. Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the group, including children, was found "murdered" at close range.
She said refugees living in Syria, mainly Iraqis who have been living in the Damascus suburb of Seida Zeinab, have left their homes due to the increasing violence and "targeted threats" against them.
Some 88,000 Iraqis are registered as refugees in Syria, mostly in Damascus, along with about 8,000 refugees from other countries such as Somalia and Afghanistan.
The Iraqi government has so far run eight flights to Damascus, and by Friday morning had evacuated around 1,000 residents, said Capt. Saad al-Khafaji of the state-owned Iraqi Airways.
"We will continue the flights until there are no Iraqis left" in Syria, al-Khafaji said. He said transportation officials have stopped bussing Iraqis across the border from Syria "because of the dangers."
read more at USA TODAY
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