Most poured into Turkey with children and dozens of wounded; others to Jordan and Lebanon. The 9,000 clambering over the barbed wire fence into Turkey were escaping fighting in Harem in Syria’s northern Idlib and expected air raids on the northeastern town of Ras al-Ayn, which rebels seized from the Syrian army.
Earlier, a Turkish state-run agency reported a group of Syrian soldiers sought asylum, including two generals and 11 colonels.
UN officials warn that the unrelenting increases in violence and suffering in Syria would raise the numbers in need of humanitarian aid from 2.5 million to 4 million early next year. In recent weeks Kurds and Palestinians are being drawn into the fighting.