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AP Photo / Muhammed Muheisen
An elderly man who fled his home due to fighting between the forces of President Bashar Assad and rebels takes refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz, on Thursday.
More than 200,000 Syrians have poured into neighboring countries during the conflict, already surpassing the projection of 185,000 set out by the U.N. refugee agency for the end of this year.
Meanwhile, more than 3,500 people fleeing violence in Syria entered Turkey over the past 24 hours, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate said Friday, one of the highest daily refugee flows since the start of the uprising last year.
The total of fleeing Syrians reflects an increase of some 30,000 in the past week alone to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, but also takes into account a change in the way the agency counts those in Jordan, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
UN: Syrian refugees top 200,000 as exodus grows
"We are now at a much higher level of 202,512 refugees in the surrounding region," Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in a briefing.
As fighting continues in Syria, observers blame government airstrikes for mounting casualties which activists now say top 20,000. NBC News' John Ray reports.
"In Jordan, a record 2,200 people crossed the border overnight and were received at Za'atri camp in the north," he said.
Edwards, referring to Lebanon where 51,000 Syrian refugees are now registered, said: "The deteriorating security situation in Lebanon is hampering our work to help refugees fleeing Syria's conflict, though operations are continuing."
Town hammered
The news came after reports that troops and tanks swept into a town near capital Damascus in an assault aimed at crushing opposition to President Bashar Assad in Syria's increasingly bloody civil war.
Artillery and helicopters hammered the Sunni Muslim town of Daraya on Thursday, killing 25 people and wounding 200 over the previous 48 hours, opposition sources told Reuters. Soldiers moved in and raided houses.
As civil war rages on in Syria, there is growing concern over violence that is spreading to neighboring countries. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
"Artillery is firing from Qasioun Mountain in regular bursts of heavy barrages. I wonder what is left of the town," said one woman watching the shelling from Damascus.
At least 100 people, including 59 civilians, died in violence across the country, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Some 200 were killed on Wednesday.
Photos: Displaced Syrians struggle to find safe shelter
An estimated 20,000 people have been killed in 18 months of unrest in Syria.
There was little resistance as Assad's forces pushed toward the center of Daraya on the southwest edge of Damascus. Armed rebels had apparently already left.
At least nine people die as Sunni Muslims and Alawites fight for a second day. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
"They are using mortar bombs to clear each sector. Then they enter it, while moving towards the center," said Abu Zeid, an activist speaking by phone from near Daraya.
Assad's military had driven insurgents from most of the areas they seized in and around the capital after a bomb killed four top security officials on July 18. But rebels have crept back, regrouping without taking on the army in pitched battles.
Tanks and troops attacked the southwest Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya on Monday and Tuesday, killing 86 people, half of them in cold blood, according to Assad's opponents.
The battle for Aleppo: My 18 days with the Syrian rebels
It is hard to verify such assertions due to state curbs on independent media. Syrian leaders say they are fighting "armed terrorists" backed by Western and Gulf Arab nations out to topple Assad for his resistance to Israel and the United States.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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The US needs to stay out of this war. All the way out. Including no refugees from Syria relocated to the US.
Personally, I think the U.S. needs more Syrian restaurants.
Hello folks, should this surprise anyone? We have been killing and displacing people all around the world for decades. In our short history we have bombed over 65 countries. We have been a country for 236 years and have been at war for 216 of those years.
Since World War II, 90% of the casualties of war are unarmed civilians. 1/3 of them children. Our victims have done nothing to us. From Palestine to Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia to wherever our next target may be, their murders are not collateral damage, they are the nature of modern warfare. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They hate us because every day we are funding and committing crimes against humanity. The so-called "war on terror" is a cover for our military aggression to gain control of the resources of western Asia.
This is sending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslim countries. This is trading blood for oil. This is genocide, and to most of the world, we are the terrorists. In these times, remaining silent on our responsibility to the world and its future is criminal. And in light of our complicity in the supreme crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing violations of the U.N. Charter in International Law, how dare any American criticize the actions of legitimate resistance to illegal occupation.
We are going into Syria for a couple of reasons (yes we are in Syria with our Drones at a minimum), one, we are trying to dislodge Russia from there because they have a foothold in the Middle East via two military bases in Latakia and Tartus in Syria. Two, Syria is a strong ally of Iran. If we invade Syria we take out a strong ally and maybe incite Iran to assist giving the U.S. the reason they are looking for to attack Iran. The ultimate goal is to surround, weaken and to invade Iran. The petro dollar is at stake as other countries are switching to other forms of currency in buying Iran’s oil.
Since the Russian war in 1828, Iran has never attacked another country. We on the other hand have attacked to name a few:
Libya, Iran, Nicaragua, Haiti, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Angola, Mozambique, Honduras, Chile, Congo, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Angola, Columbia, Peru, Panama, Yemen, Pakistan, Grenada, Mexico, etc.
Wake up people we are being herded down the Military Industrial Complex gauntlet again to another false war to enrich the greedy Corporations and distract the American people. Did we not learn anything from the Iraq war where we have killed well over 1 million Iraqi people, lost thousands of American lives and God knows how many hundreds of billions of dollars?
Who do you support, humanity or the greedy elite?
Many of our soldiers don't fight for America, they fight for their lives and their buddies beside them, because we put them in a war zone. They're not defending our freedoms, they're laying the foundation for permanent military bases to defend the freedoms of Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum.
Face it we're Imperialists pure and simple. The elite look down on all of us as expendable chattel.
"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy" Henry Kissinger
I’m not asking you to hate war, but to love peace? War, what is it good for, absolutely nothing!
Why is it that Obama can stick his nose in Egypt and Libya business and can stand back and watch Syria and Iran????
http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/israelis-prepares-for-war-with-gas-masks-new-home-front-defense-minister-as-iran-nuclear-threat-grows-and-syria-implodes/
Sunnis and Shiites are killing each other wholesale. As being demonstrated in Lebanon, this sectarian war will spread throughout the middle east. Islam will destroy itself... the slaughter is just beginning.
the rebels are punch of terrors, the Muslim brotherhood wants to take over since it is a evil deal happens to give the evil Muslim extremists the whole middle east, there is not something call rebels, they are a terrors group.
Let the hand-wringing and the cries of "Oh, woe is us" because (a) we aren't getting involved or (b) we are getting involved continue, but at higher decibel levels.
Hezboallah and the majority Shiite (along with the Christians) in Lebanon can liquidate the Sunnis interlopers rather quickly, the Palestinians should stay out of this one as they are guests in the country, or else expect a mass exodus into Israel proper and elsewhere of Palestinians.
Is the uprising really going to make the lives of ordinary Syrians' any better?
It will be Egypt all over again. Once the fighting is over, the let down comes, with people thinking that better circumstances occurs immediately without decades of further sacrifice and hard choices.
They think they will go to sleep and wake up with a TV, running hot and cold water, a good job, a comfortable bank account, a well stocked kitchen, a running car, health care and the heads of all their personal enemies on a stake.
I call it the "Santa Claus syndrome," and we foster it because we never tell these countries it took us over two hundred years to get the luxuries they see us with, and that not all Americans live the way TV shows portray us.
all these inoccents are dying just because the u.s. wants a democratic govt. in power, like ours, full of cheap thieves, like the new york banksters that control our govt.!
SYRIA has running water and electricity and school system , but these thugs do not want freedom , these Alqaida thugs supported by the Saudis and Qataris and funneled in by Turkey , Lebanon and Jordan and trained and armed by none other than NATO and the US , coming into Syria to destroy every thing Syria about , Assad is not an angel , but he his an angel when you compare him to these murderers and hired killers , I wish that our Media shows us the destroyed Churches and the mutilated bodies and the people been throwing of roof tops , but I guess they were paid to stay with these Alqaida thugs and make look like angels , Just like we use to do in Afghanistan , Taliban's were angels when they were fighting the Russians , But guess what , they have not changed at all , they are the same murderers we trained and armed , the Saudis still fund them and Alqaida , so what's the deference , the difference is that THE Saudis AND Qataris ASKED US TO ARM AND TRAIN THEIR THUGS , AND BOY , DOES THE MONEY TALKS ????
your bogus claims that freedom fighters of syria are al queera thugs projects disinformation of the reality that protesters of arab spring are terrorist when actually they are citizens that is demanding their freedom and rights and Assad started slaughtering them by the thousands to prevent them of their human rights. Let's be real, Assad is a hitler like dictator guilty as hell of crimes against humanity and you support him and lie on his behalf. Its like calling americans terrorists when they sought their freedom from England during the american revolution
According to Veterans Today:
“There is no question this is a Washington-orchestrated war. It is a low-level war to the extent that NATO has not gotten directly involved. But it is exactly what happened in Libya last year. An insurgency began; Washington orchestrated it; insurgents were recruited; they were funded; they were armed; they were US special forces, British special forces, CIA, MI6, Qatari special forces. They are in Syria now; they are directing these massacres, these killings. They are funding, they are training; they are picking targets; they are leading these dead squad games to places like Houla [and] Takiba. They are picking up who to slaughter. They go after pro-Assad loyalists".
"You always have to ask, when terrible incidents occur, whether it is car bombings, whether it is massacres of civilians, cui bono, who benefits? Assad gets nothing from this. Only the opposition gains. Assad is the victim. The victim is being blamed for the perpetrator’s crimes. But again make no mistake. The nexus of this struggle emanates from Washington, doesn’t matter whether it is Obama, [former US President] George Bush or anybody else. Syria, and other regional countries, have been targeted for regime change for years, at least a decade. It was only the question when each one would come up. Syria’s turn came up and violence has been raging since early last year.”
Folks this has been pre-planned for a while, Syria has been on the list for a long time and now their time has come up. Do you really want another unnecessary war? Do you want your children fighting for another corporate war? I keep adding General Clark’s admonition of America’s plan to take over the Middle East because it is playing itself out right in front of the world! This isn’t a necessary war!
General Wesley Clark: "America will take out 7 countries in 5 years"
According to Former NATO supreme allied commander, former presidential candidate and 4 star US General Wesley Clark that they had received a memo that America is going to take out 7 countries in the Middle East starting with Iraq, Libya, Syria Lebanon Sudan, Somalia, and finally Iran. It is amazing that even if it is taking longer than originally planned, how these things that were planned years ago are being achieved in front of our eyes.
Folks, haven’t we spread enough blood shed and death around the world? This isn’t a necessary war!
If they're overthrowing their own government, let them stay there and support their fighters. This makes no sense. If they come to our shores, take them to the Rio Grand and point them SOUTH.
Sad as it is, it is still a small percentage of those displaced in the Iraq war - and strangely that never seemed to concern the UN, the US, the UK or anyone else greatly at the time. In fact, that mass displacement and suffering almost never even received any media coverage at the time either. The fact that they are exercised over this then relatively small event defies logic. There seems to be a level of inconsistency as to what is considered to be bad without any relation to actual numbers.
The NATO and the US invasion of Iraq created 1 million refugees that went in to Syria , not even one dumb country tried to help , mostly the Christians Iraqi went to Syria b, and now they are going back and running every where scared from these murderers , Syria never complained and just for that , you should admire Assad and his country , they took all these people in and provided safe heaven for them The US and NATO never offered any help , but boy they did not mind destroying these innocent people homes and land , so let's get the facts straight , we and NATO ,Turkey helping these Saudis and Qataris Alqaida thugs again to destroy another country , what for and what gain we keep having , is the OIL and GAS worth all these innocents lives , or is these worthless kings in the Gulf trying to destroy the only country that let the Christians live in peace and practice their religion freely ?? do we hate the Christians that much in that part of the world ??? shame on you ,,,Shame on you .
These people are so thankful for Obama! the Peace Prize winner who is letting mass murder continue, who is letting a corrupt leader (one that is not a Chicago Democrat) kill and drive his citizens out of the country. Obama will be known forever in the Middle East as the BLACK SATAN! He has offered to help if Assad uses chemical weapons. But as long as Assad just tortures people, bombs them, and shoots them - that is OK with Obama. That just sounds like a typical Chicago weekend in the neighborhoods run by the Democrat drug gangs.
Jamie Alvarez I do not think you people's elevators goes all the way up to the top , not just you Jamie most of the people on this site ignore the fact , that Alqaida are in Syria , and that's proven fact , Saudis and Qataris and the US admitted to help these thugs , arm them and pay them , the Saudis and Qataris spent enough money in Syria to feed all the hungry in the world , you hear man , in the FING world , these thugs are destroying Syria and every building , Church , School , Library every thing in their site and murdering civilians and mutilating their bodies , you know I am going to tell this story , After we destroyed Iraq , I was talking to this guy and he told me . well look what we did in Iraq they have schools , power . water and roads , so I said to him ; you dumb assssss Iraq had schools . power , water and roads and every thing the Western countries have , because Iraq one of the richest countries in that region , and we destroyed it , not Saddam , because he built it , and my point is , Assad and his regime built Syria the way it is now , why in the hell he wants to destroy it , these thugs are not going to , simply because they do not have the hearts of the Syria people , yes there are few that do not like Assad , but these people like people here that hated BUSH and some hate Obama , so in Syria you have these Muslims extremists they do not like any body that is not from them , they even hate the Sunnis if they are not Salaffi Muslims or Brother hood , Just like the Saudis and Qataris , and here where the problems starts , these Kings and Princes they hate every thing about Syria and Assad , Just like they hated us on 9/11 , you all do remember 9/11 , don't you???? most of you forgot , even Obama , Hillary , McCain , Lieberman , Graham and all these senators that needs money and AIPAC supports for their campaigns , they forgot our fallen heroes and they are listening to the Saudis and Qataris and arming and training these Alqaida thugs in Syria , but no matter what I say or any decent reporter will say , you all so Fing blind .
Punctuation isn't your strong suit.
We should let all countries in the middle east kill each other off. Stay away from any internal conflict even though those in power would commit genocide on another group of people. Laissez faire should be the policy.
This and $2 will get you a cup of coffe.
This just goes to show how impotent the UN really is.
This is one group that needs to be disbanded. A lot member nations also hate the USA with a passion. Imagine the monies saved (approximately $2 billion annually).