Civil war | Syria

5,000 fleeing conflict daily, U.N. says


Intense fighting between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters continued around Damascus yesterday, and U.N. officials said about 5,000 people are fleeing the country daily.

Activists reported heavy shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in the opposition-held eastern Ghouta region and southern neighborhoods in response to an offensive this week by rebel groups trying to remove government checkpoints and seize strategic areas on the outskirts of Damascus.

Opposition fighters said they downed a MiG fighter jet near the suburb of Douma.

Meanwhile, the 5,000 people leaving the country each day, based on January figures, amounted to a 25 percent increase from the previous month, the United Nations said.

Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, labeled the increase in refugees “a full-on crisis.”

Almost 800,000 Syrians have registered as refugees or are in line to be registered in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq.Several hundred thousand more people have fled Syria but have not sought refugee status, experts say, meaning more than 1 million Syrians have left the country since the conflict began.

Inside Syria, the U.N. said, the humanitarian situation is dire. More than 2 million people have been displaced from their homes, according to estimates.The United Nations has expressed alarm about possible shortages of food and the breakdown of the nation’s health, water and sanitation systems.

The fighting continues as the international community pushes for a diplomatic solution to the nearly 2-year-old conflict.