Beirut, February 6

Thousands of Syrians were braving cold and rain at the Turkish border today after fleeing a Russian-backed regime offensive on Aleppo that threatens a fresh humanitarian disaster in the country’s second city.

Tens of thousands have escaped fierce fighting as government forces unleashed an advance this week against rebels, severing the opposition’s main supply route into Aleppo.

Today morning, Turkey’s Oncupinar border crossing — which faces Bab al-Salama on Syrian soil — remained closed as Turkish authorities said they were working to free up space within existing camps to accommodate the new arrivals.

“Our teams are ready to provide them with water and food as soon as they arrive,” Turkish Red Crescent head Ahmet Lutfi Akar said.

Around 40,000 civilians have fled their homes over the regime offensive, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

“The situation of the displaced is tragic,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. “Families have been sleeping outside in the cold in fields and tents with no international NGO there to help them. They’re helping each other.”

EU officials toay reminded Turkey of its international obligations to keep its frontiers open to refugees camped on its southern border.

“The Geneva convention is still valid which states that you have to take in refugees,” EU Enlargement and Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn said as he went into talks with The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday it estimated “up to 20,000 people have gathered at the Bab al-Salama border crossing and another 5,000 to 10,000 people have been displaced to Azaz city” nearby.

Warning against foreign ground aggression

DAMASCUS: Syria’s government warned Saturday against any foreign ground intervention in its war after reports that Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which both support rebel forces, could send in troops. “Any ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorisation would amount to an aggression that must be resisted,” Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said at a news conference in Damascus. “We assure you that any aggressor will return to his country in a wooden coffin.”