UK hands out £10m extra as refugees flee Syria

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell made the pledge as he visited the Za’atri tented refugee camp in Jordan, on the Syrian border yesterday.

The funding announcement came as officials in Turkey said more than 1,300 people fled over the border overnight as rebels battled to expand their hold inside Syria’s largest city, Aleppo.

The UK money represents a major increase in aid for refugees which was previously £3m.

Mr Mitchell said: “Britain has not forgotten the people of Syria. Today’s extra support shows we stand alongside those who have lost everything because of the actions of this ruthless regime.”

It will provide emergency food rations for more than 18,000 Syrian refugees, plus safe drinking water and sanitation amid the hot conditions, including for mothers and children caught up in violence.

Funding will go to three humanitarian bodies providing assistance in the region, the World Food Programme, Unicef, and UNHCR.

Approximately £5.5m will be used for activities in Jordan and the remainder in Syria’s other neighbouring countries, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, providing counselling services, emergency foot, water supplies and emergency shelters as well as education for children who are missing school.

The civil war raged on yesterday as Syrian president Bashar al-Assad met an envoy from key ally Iran in Damascus, and again vowed to fight on.

Official news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying the Syrian people and government were “intent on cleansing the country from terrorists and combatting terrorism without leniency” and the two men discussed their two countries’ “strategic cooperation relationship” and “attempts by some Western countries and their allies to strike at the axis of resistance by targeting Syria and supporting terrorism there.”

Heavily armed government troops are continuing their steady bombardment of rebel-controlled parts of Aleppo, particularly Salaheddine and other districts on the southwestern edge of the strategic city.

Aleppo-based activists said clashes were going on Tuesday near the historic city centre. That suggests the rebels were making some inroads in Aleppo, which lies some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Turkish border.

Intense government bombardment of the Syrian town of Tal Rafaat closer to the border sent scores of people spilling into Turkey for safety, according to the activists.

A Turkish government official said 1,328 Syrian refugees had crossed the border by mid-morning – nearly double the number of refugees who reached Turkey on Monday.

Close to 48,000 Syrians have now found refuge in Turkey, which has served as a staging ground for rebels fighting Assad’s regime.

Among them is Ahmad Saleh, from Tal Rifaat, who said the town was shelled Monday from the nearby air base of Minnegh, killing two people.

Saleh, who fled to Turkey after midnight on Tuesday, said pharmacies and grocery shops in Tal Rifaat were closed.

“The situation is miserable and it is not possible to find goods,” he said. “We had to choose between dying in Syria or coming to Turkey.”

Despite the ferocious crackdown, rebels in Syria have grown more confident and are using increasingly bolder tactics both in Aleppo and in the Syrian capital, Damascus.