REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ANKARA - About 11,000 Syrian refugees have fled to three neighbouring countries in the past 24 hours, the largest exodus in "quite some time", the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.
The latest exodus into Turkey (9,000 persons), Lebanon (1,000 persons) and Jordan (1,000 persons) brings to 408,000 the total number of Syrian refugees registered or being assisted in the region, Panos Moumtzis of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.
"It just indicates a significant crisis, the continuation of the conflict," Moumtzis told a news briefing in Geneva after aid agencies held a Syria Humanitarian Forum. "In Turkey, we know from most refugees that they come from Aleppo or Idlib or northern areas. That has been the trend so far."
Meanwhile, U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told The Associated Press that the refugees had crossed into the Turkish border province of Sanliurfa. "These are people fleeing fighting between the (rebel) Free Syrian Army and the government of Syria, including more than 70 wounded and two who are reported to have died," Edwards said.
The new arrivals would bring the number of refugees in Turkey to around 120,000. Earlier, the state-run Anadolu Agency said a group of Syrian soldiers, including two generals and 11 colonels, had fled to Turkey with their families and were taken to a camp that shelters military defectors, including dozens of other generals.
Anadolu Agency video footage showed Syrians jumping over and climbing through the barbed-wire fence that makes up part of the 911-kilometer (566-mile) border, to cross into the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar. The civil war in Syria has killed more than 36,000 people since an uprising against the Syrian regime began in March 2011.
Turkey has long pushed for a foreign-protected safe zone inside Syria but the proposal has gained little international support. Ankara has become increasingly vocal in its frustration at the U.N. Security Council over its failure to take action.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan hit out again on Friday at the 15-nation Security Council. "It is very strange. There are currently atrocities being committed in Syria and these atrocities are being directed by a state leader. While these atrocities are continuing ... there is a United Nations that is remaining silent towards it," Erdogan said during a trip to Indonesia.
"How far will this go? When will the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council take responsibility? We are obliged to act together to counter this, otherwise we cannot refer to this world body as being democratic," he said.
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