Aid
agencies scramble as 20,000 Syrians reach Turkish border crossing
Tens
of thousands flee ongoing Russian airstrikes and pro-Assad ground
assaults on Aleppo and surrounding towns
Martin Chulov Middle
East correspondent
Friday 5 February
2016 17.11 GMT
Turkey’s main
border crossings with north-west Syria remain closed for a second day
as tens of thousands of refugees flee a Russian bombardment and a
ground offensive by pro-government groups that has all but besieged
Aleppo.
Aid agencies in
southern Turkey were scrambling to deliver food and shelter to whole
communities that had fled the most sustained attack of the five-year
war, with some arrivals claiming their towns and villages had been
decimated by indiscriminate bombing.
The United Nations
estimated that 20,000 people had gathered at the Bab al-Salam border
crossing. Most are believed to be among the poorest residents of
northern Syria, who had remained behind throughout a conflict that
had emptied out the countryside between Aleppo and the border, and
whittled away the rebel-held east of the city itself.
The regime push
marks one of the most decisive phases of the war, and comes after
three years of setbacks in the north, in which most of Aleppo and
Idlib provinces had fallen from the grasp of Damascus.
Few residents had
remained in Aleppo before the latest push, which coincided with
now-stalled peace talks in Geneva between Syrian regime officials and
members of the opposition. Rebel forces still in east Aleppo said the
country’s largest city had been without power, fuel, water and food
for several weeks.
A ground assault led
by Hezbollah and Shia militia groups has effectively laid siege to
the city, which had been a stronghold of the opposition presence in
northern Syria since July 2012. Rebel groups in the area, among them
the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, conceded that only several
kilometres stood between pro-Assad forces on either side and that the
gap was likely to be closed over the weekend.
“The Russian
airplanes haven’t stopped,” said Syrian activist Bahaa al-Halabi.
“Every minute, there is an airstrike. The Russian airplanes are
flying five or six planes together. So far, they have hit more than
three local markets and caused a lot of civilian casualties.
“People have been
fleeing Aleppo since last week and heading to the Turkish borders but
the Turks are not allowing them to enter. They have been sleeping in
the fields without any protection in this cold weather.
“They do not dare
to cross to the areas controlled by the regime because they know they
will be killed straight away. Nothing is safe now, Aleppo the city
and the countryside are destroyed and the Shia militias of Hezbollah,
Abu Fadhl al-Abas and the Iranian militias are fighting at the
borders of the city.”
A second Syrian
activist at the Bab al-Salam crossing, Yousef Haj Ali, said: “There
are huge numbers of refugees here. They have escaped a brutal war
against them. Azaz has been hit throughout the day by planes and they
have nowhere to hide.”
Iranian news
agencies said on Friday that a brigadier general and six members of
its Basiji forces had been killed in the fighting. Hezbollah, which
has played a lead role in the assault, which first broke a siege of
two Shia villages, has not released casualty figures. However,
residents of the group’s stronghold of Dahiyeh in south Beirut said
at least four of its members had died.
Turkey has taken in
more than 250,000 Syrian refugees throughout the conflict and allowed
hundreds of thousands more to cross its borders, many of whom have
travelled to Europe via overland routes or deadly crossings of the
Mediterranean Sea. Of those who remain in Turkey, many are housed in
camps near the border crossings. However, over the past year, only
urgent medical cases and some people with pre-arranged family visits
have been allowed to enter Turkey.
Sherif Elsayed-Ali,
deputy director of global issues at Amnesty International, said:
“Turkey … must not close its doors to people in desperate need of
safety.
“These people have
fled airstrikes and heavy fighting; they are likely to be traumatised
and exhausted. Turkey must allow them to enter its territory and the
international community must do all it can to ensure adequate support
is given to the country.”
Mohammed al-Yousef,
a refugee from Raytan, which fell on Thursday to pro-regime forces,
said every hospital in the north had been damaged or destroyed by
warplanes. The UN estimated that 13 hospitals had been destroyed in
January.
Access to medical
care was now a critical issue for new arrivals, Yousef said. “It’s
just as important to get treated as it is to get food and water.”
Russia’s stated
goal in Syria had been to to attack Islamic State, which controls
much of eastern Syria, and has a smaller presence in parts of the
centre of the country. Isis forces have not had a significant
presence in the north-west since last February, when opposition
groups ousted them after a six-week battle.
The war, which
started as a civilian uprising against the rule of Bashar al-Assad,
has destroyed large parts of the country’s towns and cities, forced
6.5 million to flee and left millions more to fend for themselves
amid widespread bombardment and starvation sieges.
Opposition forces,
which initially unified under the banner of the Free Syrian Army,
have splintered and realigned throughout the war into a dizzying
array of groups. Some have Islamist leanings, others are global
jihadis, and yet more are non-ideological units who claim to be
fighting to re-orientate power within Syria’s borders.
Regime forces have
been significantly boosted throughout the war by Shia militias, led
by Hezbollah, and the Abl al-Fadil al-Abbas brigades from Iraq. More
recently, they have been joined by Shias recruited from Afghanistan.
All have been co-ordinated by Iran.
Despite the support,
the military had been unable to manoeuvre around Aleppo in two prior
attempts to oust the rebels. Russian air assaults over the past
fortnight, as well as the direct involvement of some Iranian forces,
have been decisive in the current advances.
Nato’s secretary
general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Friday that the Russian strikes
were “undermining efforts to find a political solution to the
conflict”.
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