ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan - A sniper’s bullet ripped through Hazem Mahmoud’s back seven months ago in Homs, Syria. The 15-year-old has felt nothing below his waist since then. His legs are pale, wasted and scarred by sores.  One bites deep into his thigh.

“Before the war life was sweet,’’ Hazem said as he lay in a tin hut next to his sleeping sister. “Then the bombs and the shooting started. Now there are no hospitals in Syria, no one to help me.’’

Mohammad Hannon / AP, file

Refugees walk through water and mud in Zaatari refugee camp near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, on Jan. 8.

A wheelchair and a single suitcase are the family’s sole possessions in the camp. The family discarded everything else along the way.

Hazem is a boy the world has all but forgotten. At the Zaatari camp he is only one of thousands of desperate new arrivals on a recent morning. Only when we alert the United Nations staff is an ambulance summoned.

In the overcrowded camp, medical services are overwhelmed, and aid running dangerously short. Humanitarian officials estimate that more than 1.2 million Syrians have fled the country to escape the war between President Bashar Assad’s forces and the largely Sunni rebels trying to unseat him.

All the aid agencies complain they are approaching a funding crisis as big as the camp itself. Just one example: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) provides the water for 120,000 refugees in Zaatari. Three hundred huge tankers lumber through the gates each day.

“This is for drinking, for washing, for the toilets, and yet we are not in a position to renew the contracts to keep that water coming,’’ says Simon Ingram of UNICEF.

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

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Many aid workers report tensions are mounting among the refugees; scuffles are common. Violent protests are no longer rare.

It doesn’t help that the huge sums promised by the international community have not been fulfilled. More than two-thirds of the funds needed to cover the basic needs of Syrian refugees have not materialized, United Nations officials say.

The result on the ground? Even food hand-outs might have to be cut, says Laure Chadraoui of the World Food Program.

"There is a lot of anger here. The assistance we provide helps hold that in. Take it away and the pressure cooker will explode,’’ she said.

Invisible wounds

Hazem and his family’s escape from Syria was both exhausting and miraculous.

After that his family – mother, father, sister and sister – moved from safe house to safe house, dodging Syrian army checkpoint.

Finally they were smuggled out of the city; first to Iraq and finally to Jordan.

The final stretch of the journey was 250 miles, with Hazem at times hoisted on his father’s back.

“What could I do, leave him to die?’’ said the father, who kept his face hidden around journalists.

The family’s story is one of thousands. Many times the wounds aren’t visible.

Ibrahim, a serious-faced boy of 13, says he dreams of joining his four brothers who fight with the rebel army.

His nightmares are more real, about the day his home was bombed and he saw his friend shot dead.

“He was just in front, it could easily have been me,’’ Ibrahim said.

There is help. Ibrahim attends a school funded by UNICEF and a therapist helps him deal with his terrifying memories.

Doctors will not be able to help Hazem walk again. The news is not good when he was finally taken to Jordanian medical center in the camp. His spinal cord is severed, a doctor says.

“If we had a chance to treat when this first happened, maybe we could have helped. But it’s too late now,’’ said Dr. Ahmad A’Sanah.

Hazem at least will live, when so many have died. But what kind of life among the refugees of Zaatari is hard to imagine.

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KABUL, Afghanistan -- As tens of thousands of American troops prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan in time for the 2014 deadline set by the White House, another exodus is gathering pace: Afghans fleeing their country’s violence and economic uncertainty.

“The international community is leaving and we are right behind them,” Khalid Gul, a 23-year-old university student, said in a trendy Kabul café. “Ninety percent of Afghans, they want to leave Afghanistan for the same reason: education and instability.” 

He and his friends frequently discuss how they would leave and where they would go. Their top choices are America, Canada and Europe.

“If Americans – the soldiers and the troops – leave here we will have no proper security and we will have the Taliban here again,” Shorab Shinwari, a 21-year-old IT expert, said.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Rahmat Gul / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

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The threat of political upheaval is another worry, with the presidential election scheduled for April next year.

And as international funding dries up and with many international companies due to shut down after the departure of foreign troops, Afghanistan’s economy is set to shrink dramatically. Foreign embassies are also being scaled down. 

“Fear of instability in 2014 is driving emigration of the very people and money that could prevent instability,” STATT, an NGO that does research and polling, said in its January 2013 Afghan Migration in Flux report. “Most foresee a future of conflict, instability and chaos as fait accompli for the country.”

Some Afghans scrambling to get out any way they can are paying $30,000 to 50,000 on the black market for fake passports and passage to another country, an exorbitant sum in a country where average annual income is estimated to be under the $500 a year. A recent Afghan police raid picked up dozens of false Canadian, Pakistani and Afghan passports and numerous forged visas. 

Meanwhile the rural poor – farmers and laborers – have fewer options. If they are forced to move because of violence, they often end up unemployed in refugee camps, which many find shameful.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Afghan refugee Abdulkareem Khan, 80, smokes a cigarette while watching his sheep, not pictured, feeding in a field on the on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 3. Abdulkareem, a shepherd from Afghanistan's north-eastern city of Kunduz, fled the violence in his hometown in 2007 along with 22 members of his family and 60 sheep and took refuge in Pakistan.

Ali, a herder from Ghanzi province, has been in Kabul for three weeks living on handouts. He said he will probably return to the violent territory because “it is better than this life,” referring to living like a refugee. 

Afghans already make up the biggest refugee population in the world at almost 3 million, with waves having left during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and again during the country’s civil war a decade later, according to the UNHCR.

Some 5.7 million Afghans returned in the first few years after the 2001 U.S.-led intervention that toppled the Taliban regime, hopeful that living conditions in their country were improving.

With peace and prosperity remaining elusive, the tide of migrants shifted again.  In 2011, more people fled Afghanistan than in any other year since the start of the decade-long war, according to the latest statistics published by the UNHCR in January 2012.

 Nearly 36,000 Afghans applied for political asylum worldwide, but the true number is likely higher because so many are smuggled out and impossible to count. 

“This last 10 years was an extraordinary period ... [which saw] an extraordinary amount of focus and support for Afghanistan, which is not going to happen again,” said Loftullah Najafizada, head of current affairs at the Afghan news channel, TOLO TV.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Afghan refugee children play with tires on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on March 1. Pakistan hosts over 1.6 million registered Afghans, the largest and most protracted refugee population in the world.

“We have to understand that as a poor South Asian country we have to face some of these challenges which are pretty natural to a war-torn country coming out of decades of conflict. You cannot skip that challenge; you have to walk through it and it takes time,” he said.

Shorab Shinwari and his friends aren’t waiting.

“I thought our country was going to develop, I was hoping to live here and have a good future,” Shinwari said. “Nobody wants to live in such a country where there is war. Everyone wants to have a good life.”

“I can do nothing for Afghanistan so I have to leave Afghanistan,” his friend, Khalid Gul, agreed. “We have to go. That is the full and final answer.”

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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." 

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

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Related:

After almost 2 years, Syria's Assad allows UN aid into rebel-held area

Full Syria coverage from NBC News

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Syrian refugees Qassem and Aminaa with baby Mariam.

HAMED ONE RECEPTION CENTER, Jordan -- Just after dark on a bitterly cold January night, a truck full of refugees arrived at a reception center on the border with Syria. Carrying their belongings in suitcases and plastic bags, about 50 men, women and children climbed out of a Jordanian military vehicle.

A little girl cried while clinging to an older sister. A frail elderly man had to be helped off the truck. One teenage boy arrived without a coat and wearing plastic sandals on his bare feet.

Each new arrival was registered by the Jordanian military, given a blanket, orange juice and a bottle of water. A clinic nearby treated the sick. More than 152 people crossed at this border point on Sunday, and more than 500 refugees entered the country in just 12 hours, the Jordanian army said.

Just across the valley from the reception center is the Syrian city of Dara'a, which has experienced some of the fiercest fighting during the nearly two-year-old conflict.

Difficult terrain and fighting make the crossing to Jordan perilous.

Aminaa, 25, and her husband Qassem, 33, had just arrived with their three daughters — 2-month-old Marian, 4-year-old Shaima and 6-year-old Sham.

The family fled their home in the outskirts of Syria's capital Damascus and, after spending several weeks in Dara’a, crossed over to Jordan.

"There was shelling every day in our neighborhood," Qassem said. "I waited until I could find secure passage for us. We're apprehensive about life in Jordan but we had to leave. I carried my two daughters for a mile through the mud to get to the border.” 

Most refugees declined to give their last names so as not to endanger family remaining in Syria.

Once the new arrivals were registered, the Syrians boarded a waiting bus that took them to Zaatari refugee camp, about a half hour drive away.

Jordan hosts the largest number of refugees fleeing the conflict that has raged in Syria for nearly two years and killed an estimated 60,000 people. According to United Nations refugee agency UNHCR there are nearly 176,000 registered refugees in Jordan, but the Jordanian government puts the total number at around 280,000. An estimated 10,000 new refugees arrived in the last 10 days, according to the UNHCR.

At least 600,000 refugees live in neighboring countries, mainly in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, the UNHCR says.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

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A look at the violence that has overtaken the country.

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The population of Zaatari camp has grown to nearly 60,000 since it opened in August. Although its stated capacity is 75,000, the camp is struggling to keep up with the influx.

Last week, while aid workers and the Jordanian government were dealing with the dramatic increase in new arrivals, the first winter storm hit -- heavy rain and snow left much of the camp flooded and hundreds of tents collapsed under the weight of rain and snow.

“During the storm, the rain was pouring into our tent,” said Sahar, a mother of four from Dara’a. “We were sleeping on wet ground, on very wet blankets. Then our tent collapsed so we were evacuated to a different place.”

A riot broke out as frustrated residents demanded better living conditions at the camp. Up to eight aid workers were injured.

“People are frustrated, they have family, small children, and they’re cold,” said Rob Maroni, country director for the NGO Mercy Corps. “It’s understandable that people would be stressed and when that happens, tempers flare.” 

During NBC's filming, children played on swings in a designated area managed by Mercy Corps. A group swarmed to grab used clothes being handed out by the NGO -- the clothes, and even the plastic bags they were in, were gone in a matter of seconds.  

While a few lucky refugees have been moved to more secure pre-fabricated mobile units with electricity, money is needed to build more housing and improve sanitation, said Andrew Harper from UNHCR.

"People need to have a more dignified place to live,” he said. “This is now quite a large city and we need to make sure that this city has got the facilities that a population this size demands.”

“Thank God it’s warmer,” said Sahar after weather improved. “Which made our clothes and blankets dry. We pitched the tent again and we dug trenches around the tent to protect it from water, and we’re now building a tin hut to install a gas cylinder for heating. But right now all we have are blankets to keep us warm."

Qassem and Aminaa's family moved into Zaatari camp Monday morning, unpacking the family of five's one suitcase.  

“In Arabic we say that the worst situations actually make you smile... so I’m smiling,” Qassem said in the tent with no electricity or heat that was their new home. “But at least we left the prospect of death in Syria. So if you escape death of course you’re happy.  We know we have a difficult life ahead, but we escaped death.”

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Smoke fills the sky after an air strike in Ras al-Ain, Syria. The town is on the border with Turkey and the close proximity of the raids have drawn condemnation from Ankara.

A Syrian warplane struck homes in the town of Ras al-Ain, which is within sight of the Turkish border, as it pursued an aerial bombardment designed to force out rebels. The attacks drew a new warning on Tuesday from Turkey, which has vowed to defend itself from any violation of its territory.

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 in the town, 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 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 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."

NATO will defend Turkey in conflict with Syria, says chief

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

‘This won’t stop’
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 (yards) 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."

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.

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.

Soft-spoken preacher Mouaz al-Khatib is chosen to lead new united Syrian opposition

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

Slideshow: The lives of Syrian rebels

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People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

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In total, 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.

"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.

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A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

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Analysis: US loses patience with Syria opposition group

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.

Also on Tuesday, Syrian jets and artillery hit the town of Albu Kamal on the frontier with Iraq, where rebels have seized some areas, according to the mayor of the Iraqi border town of Qaim.

Tension remained high in the Golan Heights, where Israeli gunners have retaliated against stray Syrian mortar fire landing on the occupied plateau in the previous two days.

Rebels press for recognition
The leader of Syria's new opposition coalition called on Tuesday on European states to recognize it as the legitimate government and provide it with funds to buy the weapons it needs to overthrow Assad.

But Britain and France appeared to set further conditions, notably for rallying support inside the country, before they grant full recognition to the Syrian National Coalition. And, like the United States, Europeans are still reluctant to arm rebel forces which include anti-Western Islamist militants.

"I request European states to grant political recognition to the coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and to give it financial support," Mouaz al-Khatib, the Damascus preacher elected unopposed at a meeting in Doha, Qatar on Sunday to lead the new group.

France's defense minister and Britain's foreign minister both said on Tuesday that forming the new group under al-Khatib, a moderate noted for his embrace of Syria's religious and ethnic minorities, was an important step but not sufficient for full recognition as a government entitled to take over in Damascus.

Slideshow: Behind Syrian rebel lines

Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.

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Osman Orsal / Reuters

A wounded Syrian man is carried to an ambulance after crossing to Turkey over the Orontes river on the Turkish-Syrian border near the village of Hacipasa, in Hatay province on October 10, 2012.

Osman Orsal / Reuters

A Syrian family cross to Turkey by boat over the Orontes river on October 10, 2012.

Reuters reports — Scores of Syrian civilians, many of them women with screaming children clinging to their necks, crossed a narrow river marking the border with Turkey as they fled the fighting in Azmarin and surrounding villages. Residents from the Turkish village of Hacipasa, nestled among olive groves, helped pull them across in small metal boats. 

NYT: US sends secret task force to Jordan to help deal with Syria crisis

"The firing started getting intense last night. Some people have been killed, some are lying wounded on the road," said a 55-year old woman, Mune, who fled Azmarin and sat with several adults and about 20 children outside a house in Hacipasa. Read the full story.

Osman Orsal / Reuters

A wounded Syrian man is carried to a boat to cross to Turkey on October 10, 2012.

Osman Orsal / Reuters

Syrians cross to Turkey by boat over the Orontes river on October 10, 2012. .

Osman Orsal / Reuters

A wounded Syrian man is helped after crossing to Turkey on October 10, 2012.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

SANA via Reuters

A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country.

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Thomas Peter / Reuters

Refugees walk through a forest clearing during a protest march through Germany near the village of Ferch, near Potsdam, October 3, 2012.

Thomas Peter / Reuters

Turkish refugee Turgay Ulu removes his sock during a break in the protest march on October 3, 2012. Ulu, who said he was jailed in Turkey for his political convictions, is writing a blog about his experiences during the journey. "We are marching, because we want freedom and respect." he wrote.

Thomas Peter / Reuters

Refugees chat as they take a break during a protest march near the village of Ferch on October 3, 2012.

Thomas Peter / Reuters

Refugees and supporters pass vintage East German Trabant cars during their protest march in the town of Werder, near Potsdam on October 4, 2012.

A group of some 20 to 30 refugees are marching 310 miles across Germany to protest their living conditions while seeking political asylum in the country. 

The asylum seekers started their walk in the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg in September after breaking an official order that constrains their movement. They aim to reach Berlin on Saturday.

Turgay Ulu, who said he was jailed in Turkey for his political convictions, is writing a blog about his experiences during the journey. "We are marching because we want freedom and respect," he wrote.

-- Reuters

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Manu Brabo, a photographer for The Associated Press, took these photos in and around Azaz, a town in north west Syria close to the Turkish border. On Friday, a warplane bombed the town killing at least four people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 

Manu Brabo / AP

Rada Hallabi, 4, who is sick with diabetes, lies on a blanket in a refugee camp on the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, on Sept. 30, 2012.

Manu Brabo / AP

The body of a Syrian woman is seen near Azaz's hospital after being shot by a sniper in the countryside around Azaz, near the Turkish border with Syria, on Oct. 1, 2012.

Manu Brabo / AP

A displaced Syrian woman and her grandson in a refugee camp In the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sept. 30, 2012.

Manu Brabo / AP

A defaced portrait of President Bashar al Assad is seen in a school used as an emergency refugee camp in Souran village, near the Turkish border with Syria, on Oct. 1, 2012.

Manu Brabo / AP

A displaced Syrian woman covers her face with a scarf in a school, where almost 15 families from Homs are living, in Souran, Syria, Oct. 1, 2012.

Manu Brabo / AP

Syrian boys play near a refugee camp on the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sept. 30, 2012.

Manu Brabo / AP

A displaced Syrian woman is seen in a building still under construction in an improvised refugee camp at the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sept. 30, 2012.

Reuters reports — With tens of thousands fleeing Syria every month, the number of refugees worldwide in 2012 is set to be the highest this century, according to a senior United Nations official.

Antonio Guterres, the body's High Commissioner for Refugees, told his UNHCR agency's executive committee Monday that its ability to cope was being stretched to the limit. Read the full story.

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• Who are the Syrian rebels?

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Manu Brabo / AP

Rada Hallabi, 4, who is sick with diabetes, lies on a blanket in a refugee camp on the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sunday.

GENEVA -- With tens of thousands fleeing Syria every month, the number of refugees worldwide in 2012 is set to be the highest this century, according to a senior United Nations official.

Antonio Guterres, the body's High Commissioner for Refugees, told his UNHCR agency's executive committee Monday that its ability to cope was being stretched to the limit.

"Already in 2011, as crisis after crisis unfolded, more than 800,000 people crossed borders in search of refuge -- an average of more than 2,000 refugees every day," the former Portuguese prime minister said.

That total had been the highest since the turn of the century "and so far this year more than 700,000 people have fled from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Sudan and Syria", Guterres said.

Syria's foreign minister says US, allies support 'terrorism'

Last Friday, another UNHCR official said the total from Syria could reach 700,000 this year, nearly four times its earlier estimate as government troops battle rebels across the country.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

Manu Brabo / AP

A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

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'Cause for deep concern'
About 294,000 refugees fleeing 18 months of fighting have already crossed into Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey, or await registration there, Panos Moumtzis told a news briefing.

He said 100,000 people had fled Syria in August, 60,000 in September and at the moment 2,000 or 3,000 were crossing daily into neighboring countries.

'Overwhelmed' aid agencies seek $340M to help refugees flooding out of Syria

The new refugees are joining some 42 million around the globe who have fled across borders to escape violence. Many of these have been in temporary shelter provided by the UNHCR for a decade or more, some for even longer.

Amid the global economic crisis and with budgets of governments stretched, Guterres told the executive committee that the cost of helping refugees was escalating fast while long-lasting crises like Afghanistan and Somalia continued.

'Senseless' torture: Charity appeals for help for Syria's kids

"We are at a moment when the demands on us are rising while the means available to respond have remained at a similar level to last year," he said.

"Our operations in Africa, in particular, are dramatically underfunded. At this moment, we have no room for unforeseen needs, no reserves available. In today's unpredictable operating environment, this is a cause for deep concern,” he added.

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