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8 THE PHILIPPINES/SUBCONTINENT OMAN DAILY Observer SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012 Philippine flood deaths climb to 60 APALIT — Thousands more Philippine flood victims crammed into evacuation centres yesterday as waist-high water covered vast farming regions and the death toll from a week of misery rose to 60. The flooding that submerged 80 per cent of Manila early in the week has largely subsided, allowing people to return to their homes, but vital ISLAMABAD — The Supreme Court of Pakistan formally indicted property tycoon Malik Riaz yesterday on charges of levelling harsh allegations against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry at a press conference. A two-judge bench comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal and Justice Athar Saeed framed the charges for committing contempt under Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003, read with Article 204 (contempt) of the Constitution and the Supreme Court Rules 1980. The court had taken notice of the June 12 press conference Malik Riaz had addressed after his court appearance in which he hurled three questions at the chief justice. On June 13, the court issued a show-cause notice to Malik Riaz, the owner of Bahria Town, under Article KARACHI — The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of Pakistan yesterday notified the formation of Directorate General of Transit Trade to monitor transportation of Afghan transit trade and supply to Nato and ISAF forces in Afghanistan, according to a notification issued by the revenue body. The directorate will start functioning from October 1, it said. Customs officials said that the directorate of transit trade had been formed to effectively monitor the supplies to Afghanistan under the treaty and supplies to allied forces in Afghanistan. “The transit trade has become a major source of smuggling into and from Pakistan,” a Customs officer said, adding that the examination of goods would help reduce illegal trade and increase duty and taxes. The Directorate-General of Transit Trade will be based at the Customs House, Karachi and will have regional offices in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta. rice-growing areas to the north remained under water as more rain fell there. “We need something to eat. I haven’t gone to work or been paid for a week,” said Rogelio Soco, a construction worker and father-of-three in the small farming town of Apalit, about 60 kilometres from Manila. Soco, 60, said the floods, which began on Monday, were 204 of the Constitution (contempt of court), read with Section 3 and 17 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance of 2003, Supreme Court Rules 1980 and all other enabling provisions in the law. Yesterday, the court asked Attorney General Irfan Qadir to prosecute the accused when it will resume the proceedings on August 29. “The directorate shall be responsible for enforcement of all transit trade agreements, laws and procedures through the respective regional directorates and the concerned collectorates,” the notification said, adding that it would also supervise the functioning of the regional directorates, furnish policy input to the FBR on matters relating to transit trade and maintain liaison with all the stakeholders. The notification specified the jurisdiction of Directorate of Transit Trade, Karachi, which would be extended to all Customs matters relating to transit and allied functions in respect of Sindh, including Port of Karachi, Port Muhammad Bin Qasim and Quaid-e- Azam International Airport. The regional directorates will be responsible for processing, examination, clearance and allied matters relating to transit goods, including bulk oil in transit. The regional directorate in Quetta would have the jurisdiction on all Customs matters relating to transit and the worst the area had seen since a huge typhoon struck in the early 1970s, and other locals also said they had not experienced anything like it for decades. Around Apalit, formerly green rice paddies had been turned into an enormous inland ocean of brown water. Rice farmer Pablo Torres, 58, said his two-hectare field planted last month had likely Real estate tycoon indicted However, Advocate Dr Abdul Basit, representing Malik Riaz, denied that his client had ridiculed the judiciary at the press conference and drew the court’s attention to an intracourt appeal moved under the Contempt of Court Act 2012, which was struck down by the court on Wednesday. But his request for halting the present proceedings was ignored by the court with Justice Afzal reminding him that the law under which he had filed the appeal was no longer in the field and that the instant proceedings were being conducted under the contempt ordinance of 2003. Dr Basit contended that his client had moved the intracourt appeal when the contempt act of 2012 was in place. He said the charges against his client were ambiguous and he did not understand the indictment. — Internews Pakistan forms directorate to monitor Nato-ISAF supplies allied functions in respect of the province of Balochistan, including the Customs station, seaports and airports and the Provincially-administered Tribal Areas (PATA) of Balochistan. The directorate is authorised to issue temporary admission documents (TAD) for entry and regulation of Afghan vehicles operating through Chaman border. The jurisdiction of the Directorate of Transit Trade, Peshawar would be extended to all Customs matters relating to transit and allied functions in respect of the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, including the Customs stations and airport, the Provinciallyadministered Tribal Area (PATA) thereof, and the Federally-administered Tribal Area (FATA). The directorate will be responsible for issuance of TAD for entry and regulation of Afghan vehicles operating through the Torkham border. — Internews been destroyed, and dozens of people in his community had suffered the same fate. “We will have to do it all over again... we have lost a lot of money here,” he said. Nearly two weeks of monsoon rains across the Philippines’ main island of Luzon peaked with a 48-hour deluge earlier this week that battered Manila and surrounding regions. The government’s disaster co-ordination council said yesterday that 60 people had been confirmed killed in this week’s floods, triple the number on Thursday. The extra deaths occurred mainly in the provinces during the initial deluges from Monday to Wednesday, but government officials in the outlying areas could not immediately report the casualties to Manila headquarters, the council said. The number of people now confirmed killed across the country since the rains first began in late July is 113, according to the council’s data. Meanwhile the government said it was struggling to cope with the scale of a relief effort across Luzon that was expected to last for weeks. Tens of thousands of people were continuing to stream into evacuation centres that were already overcrowded and unable to provide enough immediate relief goods. “The water is still high and the local government units are getting overwhelmed,” Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said, referring to the farming provinces north of Manila she was touring. Just over 362,000 people were sheltering in evacuation centres, nearly 50,000 more than on Thursday, according to the disaster council. International charity group Save the Children warned that a lack of toilets and clean water in evacuation centres could lead to outbreaks of disease. “We have seen multiple cases of diarrhoea, flu and skin rash in evacuation centres, all of which can spread very quickly if people do not have good hygiene practices,” said Anna Lindenfors, the group’s country director. The number of people officially affected by the floods also rose to 2.44 million, from 2.1 million. In Manila, clean-up operations were underway in riverside communities that endured waters up to two metres high on Tuesday and Wednesday. Francesca Deimoy, 54, a resident of Marikina, one of the worst-hit districts, said the community was worried about further flooding with the monsoon season only just beginning. — AFP Myanmar parliament to debate investment law YANGON — Myanmar’s parliament is due to debate a keenly awaited foreign investment law next week and the president could sign it into law this month, sources close to the legislative process said yesterday. One lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, said the bill had been put on the agenda for the lower house to debate on Monday. Officials said it could proceed quickly to the upper house this week and then go to the president a few days after that. A quasi-civilian government took office in March 2011 and has pushed through a series of political and economic reforms. In response, Western countries have eased sanctions imposed on the previous military regime and foreign companies are now lining up to assess business prospects in the country. Many are waiting for clarification of investment regulations before firming up their plans. The latest version of the foreign investment bill, seen by Reuters yesterday, contains some changes to the draft that circulated earlier in the year. It was not clear if this was the final version to be put to parliament, and further change is also possible during the parliamentary discussion. One article bars foreign investors from investing in “small and medium industries and enterprises; agricultural and livestock business being carried on by local business people; retail business; and small and medium service enterprises”. Some domestic firms had complained that they were not yet strong enough to compete with big foreign investors. One proposed article would allow 100 per cent foreign investment only for enterprises that involve high-tech industries beyond the reach of domestic investors. Currently all firms can be 100 per cent foreign-owned. Otherwise the bill allows foreign investors to set up joint ventures with the government or citizens. “The foreign capital shall be at least 35 per cent of the total capital if a joint-venture is formed,” it said. Foreign investors can lease land for 50 years initially, and can extend that for two 10year terms, depending on the nature of the business and the size of the investment. A previous draft allowed for an initial lease of just 30 years and allowed two 15-year extensions. The practice until now has been 30-year leases renewable twice, by five years each time. The new bill would also let the authorities grant longer leases exceptionally to foreign investors wanting to operate in underdeveloped, remote areas. Foreign companies will benefit from a five-year tax holiday from when their operations start on a commercial scale, and that period can be extended if there is some benefit to the country. — Reuters SOLDIERS paying respect during a ceremony next to the coffin of chief adjudant Franck Bouzet on the tarmac at Kaia airport in Kabul, two days after he was killed in clashes with insurgents in Afghanistan. — AFP Cambodian envoy to Philippines recalled MANILA — Cambodia has recalled its ambassador to the Philippines around a week after he accused his host country of playing “dirty politics” in a territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea, Manila’s foreign ministry said yesterday. Ambassador Hos Sereythonh was scheduled to leave the Philippines on August 17, more than one year before his threeyear tour of duty was supposed to end, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said. Phnom Penh gave no explanation for the move and merely requested the Philippines to facilitate the entry of the new ambassador, Manila’s foreign affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said. “It is the prerogative of a sending state to reassign or recall its ambassador,” he said. “Cambodia is (also) an Asean member and a friend. We hope the (new) Cambodian ambassador will help reinforce the friendship that exists between our two countries.” The recall followed Manila’s protest over Hos’s letter to a local newspaper accusing the Philippines and Vietnam of sabotaging last month’s Asean meeting in Cambodia. Foreign ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) failed to agree on how to deal with China’s claims to almost the entire South China Sea. Aside from the Philippines and Cambodia, other Asean members are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. Afghan-Pakistan talks on Taliban releases ISLAMABAD — Pakistan and Afghanistan are in talks on the release of a key member of the Taliban, whose 2010 arrest in Pakistan was blamed for sabotaging peace initiatives, a Pakistani foreign ministry official confirmed yesterday. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a powerful Taliban military chief who has been described as the militia’s second in command, was arrested in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi. The Afghan government and the former UN envoy to Afghanistan said his detention had adversely affected efforts to talk to the insurgents. “The issue of prisoners is under discussion between the two countries,” foreign ministry spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan told reporters when asked to comment on Afghan demands for access to Baradar and for his release. The spokesman did not name any prisoner or give further details, but when asked, confirmed that Baradar was still in Pakistani custody. Baradar is the most important Taliban leader to be captured since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Afghan militia from power in Kabul. He was known as a trusted aide to the Taliban’s elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. Shortly after Baradar’s arrest, the Pentagon said two other Taliban officials were arrested, also understood to have been captured in Pakistan. — AFP UN issues appeal for $ 32.5m emergency aid YANGON — The United Nations yesterday issued an appeal for $32.5 million in humanitarian aid for people displaced by recent fighting between the government and ethnic Kachin fighters in northern Myanmar and sectarian strife in western Myanmar. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs also appealed to the Myanmar government to allow aid agencies better access to the conflict areas. “We hope that donors will respond quickly and that the government will quickly outline its medium-term plans to ensure that a situation of aid dependency is not created through isolation and separation of communities from each other and their livelihoods,” the agency’s director of operations, John Ging, said after concluding a four-day trip to Myanmar. Ging visited Kachin State, where fighting that broke out more than a year ago between government troops and the Kachin Independence Organisation has displaced more than 60,000 people. He also visited Rakhine State, where fighting between Buddhist and residents erupted in June, leaving at least 77 people dead and forcing 64,000 people to flee their homes. The two conflicts have cast a pall over the Myanmar government’s recent political and economic reforms, which have led Western democracies to ease sanctions and increase aid to the once-pariah state. “On the one hand, we see significant progress resulting from the democratisation, peace-building and economic development processes while on the other hand, conflict and communal tensions have the potential to undermine stability and generate significant humanitarian needs,” Ging said. The Kachin ethnic minority has been fighting for semiautonomy in their traditional territories for more than five decades. In Rakhine, the government’s denial of citizenship and property rights to the Rohingyas has led to discrimination and persecution of the minority group, which numbers about 800,000 in the state bordering Bangladesh. Pak central bank cuts interest rate by 1.5 pc KARACHI — Pakistan’s central bank yesterday cut its benchmark interest rate from 12 per cent to 10.5 per cent as it looks to encourage private sector investment. The governor of central State Bank of Pakistan, Yaseen Anwar, said the new rate would come into effect on Monday, at the start of the new working week. The bank had decided to give “relatively higher weight” to private sector credit and investment, given that inflation is projected to rise slightly above the target during the current fiscal year, which runs until June 30, 2013. He blamed an “unenviable equilibrium of high inflation and low growth” on a protracted energy crisis and “weak fiscal fundamentals”, saying that bolstering the balance of payments depends on foreign financial inflows. External forecasts for the current fiscal year see the budget deficit rising to about seven per cent of GDP, while economists warn the government is running out of ways to fund it and is reluctant to embrace reform with polls looming. Some see little alternative to a major financial crisis or a return to the IMF, which bailed out Pakistan with an $11.3 billion loan package in 2008 that ended last November after Islamabad rejected strict reform demands. The last time the central bank slashed its benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points, down to 12 per cent, was in October 2011. — Agencies
ALEPPO — Activists fighting Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s forces in Aleppo promised a counter-attack yesterday after losing ground under heavy bombardment, and residents fled in cars crammed with belongings during a lull in fighting. The fighters were pushed back from the Salaheddin district on Thursday by troops seeking to reestablish control over Syria’s largest city and its economic hub — a crucial arena in a struggle that the United Nations said would yield no winner. “I have about 60 men positioned strategically at the front line and we are preparing a new attack today,” said Abu Jamil, a rebel commander, saying sniper fire in Salaheddine had prevented his men from retrieving a comrade’s body for two days. Reuters journalists saw residents streaming out of Aleppo, seizing on a calm spell to pack vehicles with mattresses, fridges and toys. At least two air force planes flew overhead. Random shooting echoed from inside Salaheddine, a former rebel stronghold that controls access to Aleppo from the south, and an unmanned drone aircraft buzzed directly overhead. Some residents of the shattered 9 SYRIA OMAN DAILY Observer SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012 Fighters plan push to regain ground in Aleppo A FREE Syrian Army fighter aims a RPG as he waits for Syrian Army tanks in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of Aleppo. — Reuters Captured soldier awaits trial AL BAB — Samaan, a 21year-old Syrian soldier who was shot in the leg when fighters captured him last month, waits impassively to be judged, saying he has no fear of the verdict. Lying on a wooden table and covered by a blanket despite the stifling heat, Samaan says weakly "what happens happens. I am not afraid of the sentence, because I know I have not killed." A former plastics factory worker, Samaan joined the army 15 months ago, as the originally peaceful uprising against President Bashar al Assad took on an increasingly fighter nature after a brutal crackdown by the regime. He is now being held in the rebel Free Syrian Army's local ALEPPO — Shelling by the Syrian army has damaged Aleppo’s historic citadel, part of a world heritage site in the heart of the commercial capital, the exiled opposition said yesterday. “Photographs by activists and archeological associations show that the Aleppo citadel... has been damaged,” the Syrian National Council said in a statement. One photograph distributed by the group appeared to show damage to the citadel’s entrance. “The way in which the shell hit the main entrance of the fortress and broke the marble panel bearing its name suggests that the Syrian government intentionally targeted the site,” the SNC charged. “Only government loyalists have the kind of shell that hit.” Aleppo’s old city has been listed by the UN headquarters in the basement of what was Al Bab's education department. Surrounded by stacks of books, he recounted how regime forces retreated to Al Bab, some 50 kilometres north of Aleppo near the Turkish border. At the end of July, the FSA captured the town, after the school used by the army was besieged for 10 days, and claimed it took 100 prisoners. Abdel Latif Osman, an FSA commander in Al Bab, said each FSA brigade "improvises a prison and makes sure that an Islamic council judges the prisoners." All the prisoners are tried "for their crimes, if they have killed or attacked civilians." If a prisoner is found innocent, he is invited to join the FSA. If he refuses, he is banned from leaving the town in order to prevent him from rejoining the army or acting as an informant. The FSA has "a thousand eyes," allowing it to "prove the guilt of prisoners," one defector said. In Al Bab, not all former soldiers are prisoners. Some have deserted and joined the FSA, including Khalil Ibrahim and Omar Multabir, both 21 years old. They took advantage of army missions in the town to flee and join the revolt. "When we joined the army, we wanted to serve the country, not to kill," said Ibrahim, a tank driver whose views on the army changed after he saw "abnormal things" happen during the conflict. — AFP A FIGHTER from the Free Syrian Army fires a sniper towards government forces in the Bab al Nasr district. — Reuters Historic citadel hit Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation as a World Heritage Site since 1986. The listing says that the 13th-century citadel, 12th-century Great Mosque and 17thcentury Islamic schools, palaces, caravanserais and bathhouses are of “outstanding universal value.” “The monumental Citadel of Aleppo, rising above the souks (markets), mosques and Islamic schools of the old walled city, is testament to Arab military might from the 12th to the 14th centuries,” it says. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the opposition’s claim of damage to the citadel. The Syrian army has shelled the area around the fortress several times in recent days as part of its three-day-old ground offensive against fighters in the city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. — AFP neighbourhood slipped back to try to salvage possessions, despite army snipers lurking there. Two civilians were hit by gunfire in nearby streets. One, apparently shot in the buttocks, was dragged off the street by fightersand treated by medics before being taken to a field clinic. A second man was wounded in the back and arm. Blood soaked through the sleeve of his yellow New sanctions WASHINGTON — The United States slapped new sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s government and its supporters yesterday, seeking to put further pressure on Damascus to end its bloody crackdown on opponents. The State Department and US Treasury unveiled fresh measures that officials said were taken in response to the unfolding conflict in Syria, where 21,000 people have died in the past 17 months in the face of diplomatic stalemate. The sanctions came with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton set to fly to Istanbul for further talks on the Syrian crisis, with Washington focused on supporting the Syrian opposition seeking to topple Assad. The United States has been forced to seek strategies outside the UN Security Council, as China and Russia have on three occasions vetoed resolutions backed by Western powers targeting Syria’s government. In the first measure announced yesterday, the treasury denounced the Lebanon-based group Hizbullah for backing Assad and added it to a list of organisations under sanctions for their ties to the Syrian government. “This action highlights Hizbullah activities within Syria and its integral role in the continued violence the Assad government is inflicting on the Syrian population,” the treasury said in a statement. Washington already classes Hizbullah and it is under US sanctions, but yesterday’s move explicitly ties the group to the violence in Syria, where Assad is attempting to put down a revolt. “Hizbullah’s extensive support to the Syrian government’s violent suppression of the Syrian people exposes the true nature of this terrorist organisation and its destabilising presence in the region,” said David Cohen, the Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. And in a second move against Assad’s government, the US State Department slapped sanctions on Syria’s state oil company Sytrol for trading with Iran, under measures designed to starve both Assad and Tehran of much-needed revenue. “This kind of trade allows Iran to continue developing its nuclear programme while providing the Syrian government with resources to oppress its own people,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. Citing Syria and Iran’s “two-way trade in the energy sector, in which Syria sent 33,000 metric tonnes of gasoline to Iran in April, a deal said to be worth $36 million, the department said the measure should send “a stark message.” “Though these sanctions are a direct result of Syria’s provision of gasoline to Iran, the United States views Iran’s broader support for the Assad government as completely unjustifiable,” Ventrell said. “Iran is actively advising, supplying, and assisting the Syrian security forces and government-backed activists that are carrying out gross human rights abuses against the Syrian people.” — AFP Britain to give £5m LONDON — Britain will give Syrian fighters a further £5 million to buy communications equipment and medical supplies to use in their fight against President Bashar al Assad, the Foreign Office said yesterday. Foreign Secretary William Hague was due to announce the aid alongside an increase in contacts with the opposition, especially the Free Syrian Army, but Britain will still not supply weapons. A Foreign Office spokesman said that Hague was expected to announce the extra £5 million ($7.82 million, 6.3 million euros) at a press conference later yesterday. Hague said in an article that Britain was stepping up its non-lethal aid because the “people of Syria cannot wait while the wheels of diplomacy turn”. “This week, on my instructions, my ambassador-level representative to the Syrian opposition has contacted and is meeting political elements of the Free Syria Army,” he said. Hague said Britain’s contacts with the often fractious Syrian rebel movement were aimed at helping them unite against Assad. — Reuters jacket and his face was contorted in pain as rescuers put him in a vehicle. In an apparent effort to project an air of normalcy, state television screened footage dated August 10 of a calm Aleppo, including images of its ancient citadel — UN World Heritage site — and cars flowing freely around a traffic circle. It also screened footage dated August 10 of children playing in the sea at Tartous, a town on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. Assad seeks to crush a rebellion against his family’s 42 years in charge of the pivotal Arab state. A member of Syria’s Alawite community, Assad is engaged in an allconsuming fight. Though sympathetic to the fighters, neither these countries nor Western powers have intervened militarily. Russia and China have blocked any UN Security Council action on Syria that would have opened the way to global sanctions against Damascus. The United States is preparing to announce further sanctions targeting Syrian and other entities “supporting the efforts of the Syrian government to oppress its own people”, a senior US official told reporters travelling with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Ghana yesterday. The official said the new measures, which were expected to target Assad’s government as well as possibly Iranian entities that the United States accuse of assisting him, would be announced in Washington later yesterday. Iran, Syria’s closest foreign ally, called for “serious and inclusive” talks between the government and opposition at a meeting of states sympathetic to Assad in Tehran on Thursday. “There will be no winner in Syria,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a message to the GENEVA — Growing numbers of Syrian civilians are fleeing fighting, especially in Aleppo, bringing the total to nearly 150,000 refugees registered in four neighbouring countries since the conflict began, the United Nations said yesterday. The total includes 50,227 recorded in Turkey, where more than 6,000 Syrians arrived this week alone, it said. “There certainly in the past week has been a sharp increase in the numbers arriving in Turkey, and there many of the people are coming from Aleppo and surrounding villages,” Adrian Edwards, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing. “Now if you look at other areas, I think that the situation conference. “Now, we face the grim possibility of long-term civil war destroying Syria’s rich tapestry of interwoven communities.” Diplomats said veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi could be named next week to replace the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, who quit in frustration at the deadlock among veto-wielding powers at the United Nations. Britain said yesterday it would increase non-lethal aid to Syria’s opposition, including the rebel Free Syrian Army. Foreign Secretary William Hague wrote in the Times newspaper that he had also instructed a senior diplomat to give Assad’s foes “a tough message that they must observe human rights standards, whatever horrors are perpetrated by the government”. Hague said the extra money for non-lethal assistance totalled 5 million pounds ($7.8 million) and was separate from Britain’s existing humanitarian programmes in Syria. “This is not taking sides in a civil war,” Hague wrote of the contacts with the opposition. “The risk of total disorder and a power vacuum is so great that we must build relationships now with those who may govern Syria in the future.” Assad’s offensive to reassert control over Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial hub, follows a successful drive to expel fightersfrom parts of Damascus they had seized after a bomb blast in the capital killed four of his senior aides on July 18. His grip on the country has been eroded and his authority was further shaken by his prime minister’s defection last week. Assad on Thursday appointed Wael al Halki to replace Riyad Hijab who had spent only two months in the job before making a dramatic escape across the border to Jordan is more of a steady and continued increase, but where fighting happens we tend to see the consequences,” he said. Syrian forces have pushed fighters back from a strategic district of Aleppo, but skirmishes continued and the United Nations said the conflict engulfing Syria would have no winner. As of Thursday night, there were 45,869 Syrian refugees registered in Jordan, 36,841 in Lebanon and 13,587 in Iraq — which has also seen the return of 23,228 Iraqis from Syria since July 18, according to the Geneva-based agency. “In several countries we know there to be substantial refugee numbers who have not yet registered,” Edwards said. Some Syrian refugees have also turned up in other coun- on Wednesday. But the Syrian leader appears determined to fight on, whatever the cost in human lives and destruction. Assad’s forces have been using heavy artillery and air power to subdue rebel-held areas. Reuters journalists saw a fighter jet diving and firing rockets on Thursday over Tel Rifaat, 35 km north of Aleppo, causing villagers to flee in panic. But large areas of Syria have fallen out of Assad’s control. Aleppo, an ancient city of 2.5 million people, has been battered by government artillery for days. An insurgent commander said on Thursday that 250 people had been killed in recent days in the Salaheddine district. But as yet, there has been no sign of the infantry advance required for Assad to take full control of the city. Rebel commander Abu Furat al Garabolsy said one reason could be faltering morale among Assad’s troops, but said the military might also be delaying a full-scale ground assault to tire out fighterswith bombardment and deplete their ammunition. Growing numbers of civilians are fleeing the fighting in Aleppo and elsewhere. Nearly 150,000 Syrian refugees have been registered in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq since the conflict began 17 months ago, the United Nations said yesterday. The total includes 50,227 recorded in Turkey, where more than 6,000 Syrians arrived last week alone, it said. “There certainly in the past week has been a sharp increase in the numbers arriving in Turkey, and there many of the people are coming from Aleppo and surrounding villages,” said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UNHCR refugee agency. — Reuters Refugees near 150,000 as outflow grows: UN tries including Algeria, Egypt and Morocco, and Evros, the Greek region that borders Turkey, he said, adding that the numbers were “really tiny” compared to the flows to Syria’s neighbours. Turkish media reported that some 3,000 refugees were lined up at the border gates because of lack of space in Turkish camps to accommodate the newcomers. The Turkish official denied the media reports and said there were two other camps in the Sanliurfa and Gaziantep provinces near the Syrian border to accommodate the refugees. “We have camps in the Akcakale and Karkamis towns near the border which are each able to host 10,000 Syrians,” said the official. — Agencies SYRIAN refugee children at a stopover facility near the Turkish border town of Reyhanli
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