Aid group says 100,000 newly displaced in Syria

BEIRUT — At least 100,000 Syrians have been displaced in the last three weeks by the recent surge in fighting following the Russian military intervention, pressuring already overcrowded and overstretched camps in the country, the Norwegian Refugee Council said Monday.

In a statement, the group said that the new wave of displacement is mostly from the province of Aleppo, where Syrian government and allied troops, emboldened by Russian airstrikes, began a ground offensive on Oct. 16. The militant Islamic State group has also seized new territories in Aleppo, pushing out rival rebels and fighting with government troops.

Others were displaced by the airstrikes and fighting in Hama and Homs.

“This is a cry for help,” said Karl Schembri, the council’s media advis- er. He said the newly displaced are heading toward already crowded facilities along the border with Turkey.

“There are already people moving day-to-day to find places” to lay their tents, while rainy season has begun, he said.

Last week, a U.N. official in Geneva said that about 35,000 people are reported to have been displaced from just two villages on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo city.

The civil war, in its fifth year, has killed more than 250,000 and displaced half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million.

Russia began conducting airstrikes in Syria on Sept.30, saying it aims to help the government defeat the IS group and other “terrorists.” But many of the strikes have targeted Syrian rebels in areas where the extremist group is not present and have hit civilians.

The new violence has also heightened the tem- po of diplomacy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met last week with his American, Saudi and Turkish counterparts in Vienna to exchange ideas over an end to the conflict in Syria. Another meeting is expected this Friday.

In a rare trip, President Bashar Assad traveled to Moscow last week, in his first visit out of the country since the war began in 2011.

On Monday, Assad met the visiting foreign minister of Oman. After the meeting, the Syrian presidency’s Facebook page said Assad thanked Oman for its efforts to help the Syrians “realize their aspirations in a way that will put an end to their suffering from terrorism and maintain the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Oman had previously been reported as attempting to broker a meeting between officials from Syria, Iran and arch-rival Saudi Arabia.