UN: More than 2m Have Fled Syria

More than two million Syrians are now registered as refugees, after
the total went up by a million in the last six months, the UN's
refugee agency says.
More Syrians are now displaced than any other nationality, the says UNHCR.
France and the US are continuing to push for military action over
alleged chemical weapons use bySyrian forces.
There are suggestions that President Barack Obama may be planning much
wider action than thelimited strikes that have been publicly proposed,
reports the BBC.
The reports emerged as senior US politicians were set to speak before
a congressional committee, to rally support before a vote expected
next week on whether the US should launch military action.
Tensions remain high in Syria and the surrounding region.
Russia said on Tuesday that it had detected two ballistic missiles
being launched towards the eastern Mediterranean coastline, sparking
speculation of a connection to the Syria crisis. ButIsrael later
confirmed that it was a joint US-Israelmissile test.
The UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday: "Syriais haemorrhaging
women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than
the clothes on their backs."
Around half of those forced to leave are children, UN agencies
estimate, with about three-quarters ofthem under 11.
Lebanon has received the highest number of refugees,at 700,000, even
though it is the smallest of Syria's neighbours and one of the least
able to cope.
There is now thought to be one Syrian refugee in Lebanon to roughly
every six Lebanese. Jordan and Turkey have taken in the second and
third highestnumbers respectively.
As well as those who have left the country, a further 4.25 million
have been displaced within Syria, the UNHCR says, meaning that more
people from Syria are now forcibly displaced than from other country.
Pointing out that more than 97% of Syria's refugees are being hosted
by countries in the surrounding region, the UNHCR said the influx
was"placing an overwhelming burden on their infrastructures, economies
and societies".
It appealed again for "massive international support" with the crisis.
International aid agencies are struggling to cope, having only 47% of
funds required to meet "basic refugee needs", the UNHCR says.
"It took two years to reach the first million refugees. It took six
months for the second million to be reached," the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told the BBC