45,000 Syrians flee their homes after Assad strikes Daraa

At least 45,000 Syrians have fled their homes in Syria’s south-western Daraa province after the resumption of regime strikes in the area, the United Nations said in a statement.

The Syrian regime strikes, backed by Russian air forces, have recently started again in the Syrian province a year after the de-escalation agreement between Washington and Moscow.

According to the UN report, the Syrian refugees headed towards the Syrian border with Jordan, but the Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi wrote on Twitter: “The Jordanian border with Syria will remain closed,” calling for the UN to help the displaced Syrians.

READ: 29 dead as Syria regime bombards Daraa

Jens Laerke, spokesman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that civilians including children had been killed and injured and a hospital had been put out of operation by an air strike, noting that the number of displaced stood at 45,000.

Speaking to Reuters, the UN’s World Food Programme spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said that the organisation provided food to 30,000 people and plans to deliver more in the coming days over the border from Jordan.

She also said: “We expect the number of displaced people could more than double as violence escalates.”

Forty-eight-year-old resident Khaleel Al-Hariri told AFP that air strikes and barrel bombs yesterday caused “unparalleled destruction across the town and to its infrastructure”.