One hotel and a military officers' club destroyed. Dozens dead or wounded. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees expects the number of Syrian refugees to exceed 700,000 by the end of the year. Jordan is the country bearing the greatest load. The problems of winter. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 31,000 have died in the civil war.

Aleppo (AsiaNews/Agencies)- At least two car bombs exploded this morning in downtown Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, killing dozens of people and leaving many injured. The explosions took place at Saadallah al-Jabiri square, near a club for military officers and a hotel. State television spoke of "three terrorist explosions" and showed scenes of utter destruction, with the facade of the hotel in ruins and people bleeding.

Aleppo is Syria's commercial capital, with a population of 1.7 million. Since July it has been one of the main hotspots of the conflict between the Syrian army and rebels.

Observers, heads of humanitarian groups and the U.N. Secretary-General himself note that as the intensity of the violence grows in the country, it is becoming increasingly clear that in the war there are neither winners nor losers. The conflict, which has become a civil war, started out as an appendix to the Arab Spring, with requests for greater justice and democracy. But to the internal tensions have been added the regional interests of Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - who support the rebels - and Iran, Russia and China, who support Bashar Al-Assad's government.

Yesterday, the UNHCR (the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva, issued the figures of Syrian refugees in the neighbouring countries: from mid-June until today they have tripled, going from about 100,000 to 300,000, distributed over four countries: Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. By the end of the year the UNHCR fears that the refugees will number at least 710,000 and will have to face the bitter cold of the winter months.

The U.N. agency's estimates state that in Turkey the refugees will pass from the current 93,500 to 280,000; in Iraq from 33,700 to 60,000; in Lebanon from 80,800 to 120,000; in Jordan from 103,000 to 250,000.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights - based abroad in Britain, but with local informants - has announced that so far at least 31,000 people have died in the conflict, of whom 22,000 are civilians, including more than 2,000 children.

 

 

• Syria
• Lebanon
• Turkey
• Jordan
• Arab
• Spring
• Damascus
• refugees
• U.N.
• civil
• war