Up to 30,000 Syrian refugees may be fleeing for Lebanon

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was trying to confirm reports that between 8,500 and 30,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon since Wednesday.

Many of the refugees crossed at Masnaa, about 25 miles from Damascus, Lebanese security sources said. Hundreds of private cars, taxis and buses were still ferrying people across on Friday. Turkey and Jordan have taken tens of thousands of others and one million are believed to be displaced within Syria.

Also on Friday, the Syrian News Agency SANA reported that Hisham Bekhtyar, Syria’s intelligence chief, died on Friday morning.

Bekhtyar (pictured right) was wounded in a bombing on Wednesday that killed three other security officials, SANA said.

Rebels withdraw from Damascus

Syrian rebels reportedly withdrew overnight from the central Damascus district of Midan after coming under heavy bombardment. Opposition activists called it a “tactical withdrawal.” Rebels are also believed to have seized posts on the Iraqi and Turkish borders amid failing diplomacy and warnings that the government will turn to chemical weapons to stop the uprising.

Refugees said gunfire and shelling could be heard throughout Damascus, and streets in the hard-hit areas were largely occupied by government troops or rebels.

“Bombing is always happening. We are always hearing the sounds of the firing and the helicopters are flying at a very low level,” said Rasha Hisham, a Syrian waiting at Masnaa crossing.

Refugee numbers could double

One million Syrians were believed to be displaced within the country as of last week, Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman of UNHCR, told a news briefing in Geneva, citing figures from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. The UN refugee agency has said the number of refugees fleeing the violence in Syria could almost double to 185,000 by the end of the year.

“We’ve already doubled our humanitarian aid. The flow of refugees coming over the borders – as I saw for myself in Jordan on Tuesday – is rising, perhaps rising exponentially, and so we will do our utmost to help those people,” UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said. “There are several things we can do. First of all, to give more support, practical support, to the Syrian opposition; we do not give lethal support but I have no doubt that there will be other countries that will give greater lethal support to the Syrian opposition in these circumstances.”

The European Union has already passed 16 rounds of sanctions against Syria and the UK has frozen assets and has travel bans on much of the regime. Syrian exports of oil to the European Union have been cut and Mr Hague said he hopes Arab nations would take similar measures.

Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a UN resolution threatening sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s government if it didn’t stop using heavy weapons. It was the third time the two countries have used their veto power to block resolutions to isolate Assad.

UN veto

The UN vote came after an unprecedented attack on Assad’s top aides on Wednesday that killed Syria’s defence minister. The attack and the government’s inability to crush the rebels after clashes in Damascus, pointed to an unravelling of Assad’s grip on power. Alexandre Orlov, Moscow’s envoy to Paris told French radio on Friday that Assad had “accepted to leave, but in an orderly way”. Syria’s Information Ministry immediately dismissed the report calling the comment “completely devoid of truth”.

China blamed western “arrogance and inflexibility” for the failed UN Security Council vote.

“Western diplomats rushed to point fingers at Russia and China after the resolution was defeated, but they have only themselves to blame for trying to force such an ill-considered draft through the council,” Xinhua, China’s official news agency, said on Friday.

‘Darkest hour’

Britain blamed Russia and China for their “inexcusable and indefensible” position.

“They have turned their back on the people of Syria in their darkest hour,” Mr Hague said.

Britain, the US and France backed the UN draft resolution which threatened sanctions unless Syria halts the violence. The 11-2 vote was taken with abstentions from South Africa and Pakistan. Washington, meanwhile, raised the spectre of chemical warfare.

“The potential for this regime to consider using chemical weapons against its own people should be a concern for us all,” Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN Security Council, said on Thursday.

At least 180 Syrians were killed yesterday by security forces, al Jazeera television reported.

While Assad supporters in Damascus were photographed kissing pictures of their leader, amateur video posted online on Thursday showed Syrian rebels taking over the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, stomping on portraits of President Assad and burning the Syrian flag. The video could not be independently verified, however.