“People are coming to the border and want to cross into Syria with the hope that they can sneak their relatives back into Turkey”, he said. Officials in Turkey have said they’re prepared to feed and shelter the refugees but have not said when they might be able to enter the country.
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Turkey is already home to between two and 2.5 million Syrians who have fled their country’s five-year civil war. The refugees, who fled bombing in Aleppo, were waiting at the Bab al-Salam crossing, opposite the Turkish province of Kilis.
The government victory near Dara come as a second government offensive closed in on the northern city of Aleppo, touching off a mass internal exodus of residents fleeing toward the Turkish border for safety.
Separately, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said 15,000 people had arrived at the border.
She said the fighting had also disrupted major aid and supply routes from the Turkish border.
“Humanitarian organisations are responding to the needs of those displaced, but ongoing military conflict is making access to populations in need increasingly hard”, the UN’s Linda Tom told the AFP news agency. Putting blame for the breakdown of the intra-Syrian talks on Russia is a manifestation of bad taste, Russian Permanent Representative to United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Friday. The Syrian army announced the taking of the town of Attaman in the southern province of Dara’a putting the army closer into securing the contested provincial capital of the border province in Jordan. The regime and the rebels had held static positions splitting the city for months.
Turkey would be particularly troubled if the Kurds, whom it considers its main enemy in the area, further encroached on the border area.
Haj Ali said that the Syrian government forces were backed by Iranian and Afghan troops, as well as soldiers from the Iran-backed terror organization Hezbollah. McGrath said he believes the air strikes “have been targeting areas where you could say this would force people to move”.
Farhan Haq said they were mainly from sub-districts of Aleppo, which has been the target of a government offensive and Russian airstrikes against rebel forces that started on Monday.
The conquest of the town of Atman opens up several supply routes to Daraa, which is divided between government and opposition fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
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Western nations have accused the Syrian government of sabotaging peace talks with its military offensive, and Washington has demanded that Moscow halt its campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Observatory said troops had advanced under the cover of heavy artillery bombardment and air power, the Observatory reports.
