War uproots 2.5 million Syrians, aid groups say

[Hideyoshi Toyotomi]

War uproots 2.5 million Syrians, aid groups say

GENEVA | Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:26am EST

(Reuters) - At least 2.5 million Syrians are believed to have fled their homes because of civil war, aid groups said on Tuesday, more than double previous estimates.

The figure comes from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, whose volunteers are on the frontlines of the 20-month conflict, delivering aid supplies and evacuating wounded.

"The figure they are using is 2.5 million. If anything, they believe it could be more, that this is a very conservative estimate," Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing.

"So people are moving, people are really on the run, hiding. They are difficult to count and to access," she said.

Aid agencies had previously thought there were around 1.2 million internally displaced Syrians.

Only 5 percent of the 2.5 million are believed to be living in public facilities, including warehouses and schools, said Fleming. The rest are staying with host families, making it more difficult to count them.

In recent days, air strikes on the town of Ras al-Ain near the Turkish border have caused some of the biggest refugee movements of the conflict.

The United Nations said on Friday that up to 4 million people inside Syria will need humanitarian aid by early next year when the country is in the grip of winter, up from 2.5 million now whose needs are not fully met.

For now, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) says its food rations are reaching some 1.5 million. The UNHCR aims to provide assistance to 500,000 in Syria by the end of the year, mainly blankets, clothing, cooking kits and jerry cans, Fleming said.

"Unfortunately the recent deliveries have been very difficult, marred by violence and insecurity also spreading to parts of the country that used to be relatively calm," she said.

A Syrian Arab Red Crescent warehouse in Aleppo was apparently hit by a shell, burning 13,000 blankets, she said. Unknown armed men hijacked a truck carrying 600 blankets on its way to Adra, outside Damascus.

The UNHCR has temporarily withdrawn about half of its 12 staff from north-eastern Hassaka province due to fierce fighting and insecurity, Fleming said.

"We see corresponding movement of populations there, Syrian Kurds for the most part, across the border into Iraq," she said.

More than 407,000 Syrian refugees have registered or await registration in the surrounding region - Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq - and more are fleeing every day, according to UNHCR.

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

 

[Hideyoshi Toyotomi]

Britain says Syria opposition coalition a "milestone"

CAIRO | Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:39am EST

(Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the latest effort by Syria's opposition to form a united front against Bashar al-Assad, but said more needed to be done before Britain formally recognized it.

Exiled opposition leaders formed a coalition on Sunday and the grouping is now seeking international recognition as a government-in-waiting.

Western powers demanding that Syrian leader Assad step down to end a 19-month rebellion have been frustrated by squabbling among his opponents.

"It is a very important milestone," Hague told reporters at a meeting of Arab and European ministers at the Arab League in Cairo on Tuesday.

"We want the Syrian opposition to be inclusive ... and to have support inside Syria and if they have this, yes, we will then recognize them as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people."

He said that did not imply that Britain would be ready to send weapons to the opposition because the European Union had placed an arms embargo on Syria.

But he added: "But we are not excluding any option in the future because ... the Syrian crisis is getting worse and worse all the time".

Some 2.5 million people have been internally displaced by the country's civil war, double the previous figure of 1.2 million used by aid agencies, the United Nations refugee agency said, citing the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

Hague said more needed to be done by the European Union and the Arab League to press for global assistance for Syrian civil society and human rights groups, according to a statement issued by Britain's Foreign Office on Tuesday.

"The winter cold and rain will heap further misery on soaring numbers of Syrian refugees and displaced people," he said in the statement.

(Reporting by Yasmine Saleh; Writing by Shaimaa Fayed; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

 

[Hideyoshi Toyotomi]

France says too early to recognize Syrian opposition coalition

PARIS | Tue Nov 13, 2012 3:50am EST

(Reuters) - France's Defence Minister said on Tuesday it was still too early to recognize the newly created Syrian opposition coalition, calling for more to be done to unite the armed factions under its umbrella.

Leaders of Syria's exiled opposition formed the coalition in Qatar's capital Doha on Sunday and the grouping is now seeking international recognition as a government-in-waiting.

Paris, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's harshest critics, has said it would recognize a provisional government that included all strands of society.

But it has ruled out arming rebel forces, concerned weapons could get into the hands of radical Islamists.

"What happened in Doha is a step forward," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Paris. "We consider it to be significant. It is still not sufficient to constitute a provisional government that can be recognized internationally. But it's on the right track."

He said that while political unity was important it had to be accompanied by the unification of the various armed groups.

(Corrects quote in fifth paragraph)

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Leigh Thomas and Pravin Char)

 

[Hideyoshi Toyotomi]

Residents flee air strikes on Syria border town

By Jonathon Burch
CEYLANPINAR, Turkey | Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:32am EST

(Reuters) - A Syrian warplane struck homes in the town of Ras al-Ain on Tuesday within sight of the Turkish border, pursuing an aerial bombardment to force out rebels and drawing a new warning from Ankara.

The second day of jet strikes sent Syrians scurrying through the flimsy barbed-wire fence that divides Ras al-Ain from the Turkish settlement of Ceylanpinar as thick plumes of smoke rose above the town.

Medical workers and refugees in Ceylanpinar said bombing on Monday and Tuesday struck residential areas of Ras al-Ain, which fell to rebels last week during an advance into Syria's mixed Arab and Kurdish northeast.

The offensive has caused some of the biggest refugee movements since the armed revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began in March last year, and brought the war back perilously close to Turkish soil.

Turkey is reluctant to be drawn into a regional conflict but the proximity of the bombing raids to the border is testing its pledge to defend itself from any violation of its territory or any spillover of violence from Syria.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan stressed that Ankara would not hesitate to respond if threatened.

"We are giving the necessary response on the border and will not refrain from a much harsher response if necessary," he told deputies of his AK Party. "Nobody should play with fire or try to test Turkey's patience."

A Turkish health official at the hospital in Ceylanpinar said rebel fighters were trying to pull the wounded from under the rubble of a house. Refugees say the fighters are taking cover in homes, many of them abandoned by residents who have fled for Turkey.

"As soon as we heard the jets, we knew they would bomb. It hit another house just 100 meters away," Mohammad Kahan, 49, a Kurd who fled Ras al-Ain with nine members of his family, said of Monday's bombardment.

"This won't stop, Assad will not go until America and Britain come and stop him. Only these two can stop him."

NO-FLY ZONE?

Opposition activists say at least a dozen people died on Monday, the latest of an estimated 38,000 victims of the 19-month civil war. The casualty toll on Tuesday was not known.

Turkey has repeatedly fired back in retaliation for stray gunfire and mortar rounds flying across its 900 km (560 mile) border with Syria, and is talking to NATO allies about the possible deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles.

Ankara says this would be a defensive step, but it could also be a prelude to enforcing a no-fly zone in Syria to limit the reach of Assad's air power. Western powers have so far been reluctant to take such a step.

Rebels fired machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks at the jet as it swooped low over Ras al-Ain, dropping three bombs before returning for a second strike on another part of the town, said a Reuters witness on the Turkish side of the border.

Ambulances with sirens wailing ferried the wounded from the border for treatment in Ceylanpinar.

In one 24-hour period last week, some 9,000 Syrians fled fighting during a rebel advance into Syria's northeast, swelling to over 120,000 the number of registered refugees in Turkish camps, with winter setting in.

Tens of thousands more are unregistered and living in Turkish homes.

(Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)