Syrians flee advancing forces closing in on insurgents

KILIS, Turkey — Tens of thousands of Syrians who were running for their lives piled up near the border crossing with Turkey here Monday. They were fleeing a crushing wave of Russian airstrikes and government ground forces advancing toward the frontier in a developing rout of insurgent forces north of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

The intense and, critics say, indiscriminate Russian air attacks have shattered the latest round of peace talks, forced the regional and global players to reassess their strategies and calculations and left Syrian insurgents shocked that the United

States and other countries that have supported them appear unable or unwilling to reverse the battlefield momentum.

And what was seen as the potentially decisive turn in Syria’s nearly fiveyear civil war comes against the backdrop of a deepening humanitarian crisis that was reinforced Monday by a U.N. report that accused Damascus of “inhuman actions” against Syrian civilians on a scale that “amounts to extermination.”

Coordinated ground advances by Syrian government forces and allied militias such as the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah have cut off one of two supply routes from Aleppo to the Turkish border and are threatening to close the other. Caught in the middle are dozens of rebel-held villages, trapped between the Islamic State group, the government advance, Kurdish militias and the Turkish border.

Throughout the conflict, the Western powers have found themselves constrained by conflicting aims and allegiances. On Monday, as international pressure mounted on Turkey to allow the refugees in, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany was in Ankara pressing the Turks to prevent the 2 million Syrians already in the country from leaving to join the flow of refugees to Europe.

Speaking after her meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ms. Merkel said she was “not just appalled, but horrified” by the events in and around Aleppo.

Ms. Merkel was joined by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who said, “No one should excuse or show tolerance toward the Russian air attacks that amount to ethnic massacres by saying, ‘Turkey takes care of the Syrian refugees anyway.’ No one can expect Turkey to take on the burden on its own.”

Turkey and Germany agreed Monday on a set of measures to try to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis, including a joint diplomatic initiative aimed at halting attacks against Syria’s largest city.

Ms. Merkel said that Turkey and Germany will push at the U.N. for everyone to keep to a U.N. resolution passed in December that calls on all sides to halt without delay attacks on the civilian population.

Ms. Merkel said the two leaders also discussed how to combine the work of Turkey’s coast guard with that of the EU’s Frontex border agency. She said they will use an upcoming NATO defense ministers’ meeting to discuss “to what extent NATO can be helpful with the surveillance situation at sea” and support the coast guard’s and Frontex’s work.

For their part, the Turks were refusing to open their border, in part, analysts said, to pressure the U.S. to finally grant their longstanding wish of establishing a buffer zone inside Syria where civilians would be safe from Syrian government and Russian airstrikes.

Meanwhile, as the Syrian army pushes toward the Turkish border in the north, the government is also achieving major gains in strategic southern Syria near the Jordanian frontier.

On Monday, Ibtaa and Daael — a pair of rebelcontrolled towns near Dara, the south’s major city — agreed to a ceasefire with the government as part of a deal that would stop airstrikes and allow aid into the towns, according to opposition and pro-government accounts.

Events were moving so quickly on the ground that some Syrian insurgents, activists and civilians opposed to the government were beginning to speak of defeat, at least in Aleppo province.

Things were no better for some of the thousands of Syrians still trying to make their way to Europe despite the cold and rough seas of a Mediterranean winter. On Monday, 24 more migrants drowned after a boat capsized off the Aegean coast close to Balikesir province, a Turkish coast guard official said.