E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe strain on Syria's neighbor Jordan is growing as thousands of refugees fleeing worsening violence flood across the border every day. NBC News' Stephanie Gosk reports.
Updated at 10:25 a.m. ET: About 5,000 refugees are fleeing Syria each day, seeking safety in neighboring countries, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.
"This is a full-on crisis," Adrian Edwards, spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told a news briefing in Geneva. "There was a huge increase in January alone; we're talking about a 25 percent increase in registered refugee numbers over a single month."
Since the conflict began two years ago, more than 787,000 Syrians have registered as refugees or are awaiting processing in the region, mainly in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey, he said.
In Syria, water shortages are worsening and supplies are sometimes contaminated, putting children at an increased risk of diseases, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.
The agency's first nationwide assessment revealed that water supplies in areas affected by the conflict are one-third of pre-crisis levels, UNICEF said in a statement.
"It points to a severe disruption of services, damage done to water and sanitation systems, and limited access to basic hygiene, all of which puts children at much greater risk of disease," UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado told the briefing.
Meanwhile in Damascus, President Bashar Assad's forces tried Friday to retake sections of a ring road around the capital that rebel forces had captured over the past two days. Fighter jets fired rockets around Jobar, Qaboun and Barzeh districts, sources told Reuters.
Activists said 46 people were killed on Thursday, mostly from army shelling. There were no immediate reports of casualties on Friday. More than 60,000 people have died in the civil war, according to U.N. figures.
Fawaz Tello, a veteran opposition campaigner well connected with rebels in Damascus, said the operation was part of a slow encroachment by rebels on the capital.
"Even if the rebels withdraw from the ring road, it will become, like other parts of the capital, too dangerous for the regime to use it," said Tello, speaking from Berlin.
"We are witnessing a 'two steps forward, one step back' rebel strategy. It is a long way before we can say Assad has become besieged in Damascus, but when another main road is rendered useless for him the noose tightens and his control further erodes."
/
A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.
Related:
After almost 2 years, Syria's Assad allows UN aid into rebel-held area
Full Syria coverage from NBC News
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Hello folks, this is a byproduct of exported democracy. We are funding Al Qaeda in Libya and Syria which I guess that makes them good Al Qaeda but fighting them in Afghanistan and Mali which I guess that makes them bad Al Qaeda. So we arm the good Al Qaeda who are using the weapons we gave them in Algeria and in Mali. We are in 35 African countries as they are the continent to receive Democracy with all the trimmings like protracted war, hundreds of thousands of refugees and a central bank!
Hello leftisfascist, I meant to put quotes around "democracy" as I agree democracy is the natural state but not the type we export. The type we export decimates countries that our rich corporations rebuild and profit from and our taxpayers suffer for by having to pay for these Banking, Oil and Corporate cartel wars.
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 Syria to Mali 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 and Africa.
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 funding Al Qaeda in Syria. 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 guess you can add women to Kissinger's glowing appraisal of the military as they can now fight on the front lines.
Democracy is not the natural state of man.
The natural state of man is a tribal existence with a strong but fair leader. Only when the leader of the tribe became a ruthless dictator without regard for his people and their welfare have the tribal models crumbled and been replaced, often with less effective and enduring governments.
5000 refugees daily.............heck let's bring 'em here and buy them BMWs
Not USA business. Not a US government concern. Stop policing the world; stop supplying the weapons to maintain world-wide unrest. Stop the fed.gov.
I agree that we have no role in Syria and other places where Sunnis, @!$%#ies and other Muslim sects or tribes are battling each other!
It is not our job to clean the mess invented by oil rich "strategic allies" like Sunni rulers of House of Saud, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and co.
If Russia or China want to meddle, please permit them.
Right away leftists will be happy.
After five years, it will make rightists happy that Russia and China got good thrashings!
Disagree- what goes on in Syria can stay in Syria and doesn't affect us. Our intervention is not needed or warranted.
Someone should have told Obama it was none of our business. Everywhere he meddles he has brought death destruction, oppression to Christians and less freedom. Will he do it here too?
Psalm 37
More than that flee California every day!
Where does one go, when the whole world is in chaos? We are so blessed to live in this nation, far removed from the sound of constant battle, torn up streets and homes invaded by soldiers and rebels. We truly can't comprehend what these people's lives are like.
I really pray that the fighting can end, for the children's sake. That some stability is found at last. For all those who are seeking a balance, representation for their people., That these folks be able to find a common ground and begin to rebuild a better government for all. That the days of bloodshed will come to a close soon. We had our Civil War, so far removed from anyones memory or life time.But surely we can sympathize.
What is the big deal about 5000 daily refugees when Sunni Islamic extremism is at its lowest depth?
UN and its agencies appear to be in a big hurry to collect some monies from our taxes and pocket some portion.
Oil rich Sunni rulers of House of Saud, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and other Sunni Arab League nations have become too rich by manipulating oil prices too high using Iraqi wars as excuses.
Now by managing sanctions on Iranian oil, they have become more richer by jacking up oil prices from $40 in 2009 to more than $110.
In Syria, Mali and many places, these oil rich Sunni rulers are the culprits for mess due to Sunni Islamic extremist hater and killer gangs and their proxies like al Qaida, MB, Boko Haram, Taliban and other ones with different labels.
Let UN and its agencies move their headquarters to Riyadh and get funds and economic aid soap opera people from oil rich Sunni nations.
Let the Sunni trouble makers take responsibility for solving the mess, they invented instead of the regular practice of Sunni rulers inventing the problems and we cleaning the mess.
No Comment
Alqueda is Alqueda! We should in no way whatsoever fund Alqueda!
The Jahadist in Lybia have been murdering native blacks there on a daily basis ever since the fall of Kadaffi!
If you do not believe this, please go to youtube and search "genocide, lybia" Lots of video on the subject.
It simply is NOT reported in the USA!
Shame on president Obama!
Amazing that a Black man in power would supply assault weapons to terrorist groups that murder black people.
Sounds a bit racist to me.
Great post BlackMan#1
More examples of how the Obama administration helps to bring "democracy" to the world. When will the White House be held accountable? Judgement Day?
Black genocide in lybia - curtesy of BHO