GENEVA
\nThe escalation in fighting in Syria has displaced around 280,000 people in just over a week, the United Nations said on Friday, warning that numbers could swell to 1.5 million.
\n\u201cThe figure we have in front of us is 280,000 people since Nov 27,\u201d Samer Abdel Jaber, head of emergency coordination at the UN\u2019s World Food Programme (WFP), told reporters in Geneva.
\n\u201cThat does not include the figure of people who fled from Lebanon during the recent escalations\u201d in fighting there, he added.
\nThe mass displacement has happened since fighters led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) launched their lightning offensive a little more than a week ago.
\nThat occurred just as a tenuous ceasefire in neighbouring Lebanon took hold, following two months of full-blown war that drove hundreds of thousands to flee into Syria.
\nThe WFP warned that the fresh mass displacement inside Syria, more than 13 years after the country\u2019s civil war erupted, was \u201cadding to years of suffering\u201d.
\nAbdel Jaber said the WFP and other humanitarian agencies were \u201ctrying to reach the communities wherever their needs are\u201d, and that they were working \u201cto secure safe routes so that we can be able to move the aid and the assistance to the communities that are in need\u201d.
\nHe also stressed the urgent need for more funding to ensure humanitarians are \u201cready for any scenario basically in terms of displacements that could evolve in the coming days or months\u201d.
\nAbdel Jaber cautioned that \u201cif the situation continues evolving (at the current) pace, we\u2019re expecting collectively around 1.5 million people that will be displaced and will be requiring our support\u201d.
\nArmy quits east
\nKurdish-led fighters, who already controlled most of north-eastern Syria, said on Friday that they had moved into eastern areas formerly held by the government as troops withdrew.
\nThe Syrian army and its Iran-backed allies \u201csuddenly\u201d pulled out of Deir Ezzor province as an offensive led by an Al Qaeda affiliate dealt President Bashar Al Assad\u2019s government a series of stunning blows in the northern and central regions, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
\n\u201cIn order to protect our people, our Deir Ezzor military council fighters were deployed in Deir Ezzor city and west of the Euphrates River,\u201d the Arab-majority council affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement.
\n\u201cSyrian regime forces and commanders of Iran-backed allied groups suddenly withdrew from Deir Ezzor city and its countryside,\u201d the SOHR said.
\nTheir redeployment towards the oasis town of Palmyra came as the anti-government fighters, spearheaded by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group, reached the gates of Syria\u2019s third city Homs, to its west.
\nSince the collapse of the caliphate proclaimed by the militant Islamic State group in 2014, Deir Ezzor province had been broadly divided between government forces, on the right bank of the Euphrates, and Kurdish-led forces on the left.
\nUnrest in south
\nAssad\u2019s troops also relaxed their grip on the south, allowing armed groups in Daraa province to take control of the Nassib-Jaber border crossing with Jordan, the Observatory said. Jordan closed its side of the crossing, Interior Minister Mazen Al Faraya said.
\n\u201cArmed factions seized control of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan, as well as nearby checkpoints and towns,\u201d the Observatory chief said.
\nElsewhere in the province, they captured a police station and an air force intelligence base.
\nDaraa province was the cradle of the 2011 uprising against Assad\u2019s rule, but it returned to government control in 2018 under a ceasefire deal brokered by Assad ally Russia.
\nFormer anti-government fighters there who accepted the 2018 deal were able to keep their light weapons.
\nIn Nawa, north of Daraa city, the Observatory said \u201clocal fighters managed to control several positions \u2026 after a broad attack targeting the military intelligence department\u201d.
\n\u201cIn retaliation, regime forces \u2026 shelled residential areas in Nawa,\u201d the monitor said, adding that the shelling extended to other towns.
\nDaraa province has been plagued by unrest in recent years, with frequent attacks, armed clashes and assassinations, some claimed by the militant Islamic State group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GENEVA The escalation in fighting in Syria has displaced around 280,000 people in just over a week, the United Nations said on Friday, warning that numbers could swell to 1.5 million. \u201cThe figure we have in front of us is 280,000 people since Nov 27,\u201d Samer Abdel Jaber, head of emergency coordination at the UN\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-448061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n