Lebanese Red Cross personnel move a wounded Syrian man in Chtaura, east Lebanon, yesterday. Witnesses said that at least 10 people from Qusayr were being treated in Lebanese hospitals.
BEIRUT: The United Nations warned yesterday that half of all Syrians would need humanitarian aid by the end of 2013 and launched what it said was the biggest emergency appeal in history to cope with the civil war crisis.
“Syria as a civilisation is unravelling,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, announcing the call for over $5bn before the end of the year.
The joint statement by UN agencies coincided with heavy fighting on numerous fronts, as rebels attacked an air base in northern Syria while forces loyal to President Bashar Al Assad sought to capitalise on their own recent gains.
Clashes continued on the Golan Heights, close to the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria, a day after rebels briefly seized the sole crossing between the two foes.
Highlighting the scale of the crisis, UN humanitarian agencies in Geneva said 10.25 million Syrians would need aid by the end of the year at a cost of $5 billion. “The funds we are appealing for are a matter of survival for suffering Syrians and they are existential for the neighbouring countries hosting refugees,” Guterres said.
The appeal comprises $2.9bn for refugees, $1.4bn for humanitarian aid and $830m for Lebanon and Jordan, the biggest recipients of Syrian refugees. Judging by current refugee flows, the United Nations forecast the Syrian refugee population would double over the coming seven months to 3.45 million.
Refugees are housed in often squalid camps across Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Lebanese media reported this week that the country might seek to halt the flow.
Meanwhile, Syrian forces moved yesterday to flush out remaining pockets of resistance around Qusayr. Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s army and Hezbollah fighters are expected to turn their attention in the coming days to rebel positions around the northern city of Aleppo.
Activists said there was heavy fighting in orchards surrounding Qusayr as well as the town of Husseiniya. They said there were many bodies in the fields, including those of women and children, and it was impossible to collect the corpses.
The UN Security Council urged Damascus to give “immediate, safe and unhindered access ... to relevant humanitarian, including UN, actors, to reach civilians in Qusayr, in urgent need of assistance, in particular medical assistance.”
Seeking to regain lost momentum, rebels said they were close to capturing the Minagh air base in northern Aleppo province, close to the Turkish border.
But the rebel side is fragmented, with Islamist militia increasingly muscling out more moderate forces that have been courted by Western governments.
A video posted on the Internet showed Islamists executing two rebels, one named Mahmoud Al Majdami, who was the leader of an opposition brigade, and his aide, Mahmoud Al Abed.
The two men, blindfolded and kneeling on rugs, were accused of theft, blackmail and murder. “I don’t know about that, please excuse me,” one of the men says shortly before he is shot dead.
In a separate video, fighters discarded a flag that had become synonymous with the Syrian revolt in a rebel-held part of Aleppo and replaced it with a black Islamist flag. “They’ve taken down the flag of the revolution and thrown it away as if it was the Israeli flag,” says the activist filming the scene.
Reuters
