GENEVA - Up to 30,000 Syrian refugees may
have crossed into Lebanon in the past 48 hours, in what would be
a sharp increase of people fleeing fighting in the country, the
United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.
Syria's borders remain open, it said, but the agency was not
able to confirm reports Syrian rebels took control of two major
crossings on the border with Turkey and the main Abu Kamal post
on the border with Iraq on Thursday.
"We have reports we are trying to verify that thousands of
Syrians overnight and yesterday crossed into Lebanon. So far
reports vary between 8,500 and 30,000 people who may have
crossed in the past 48 hours," Melissa Fleming, chief
spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
told a news briefing in Geneva.
"Borders remain open. People continue to arrive in Turkey.
People continue to arrive in Jordan. People continue to flood
into Lebanon and increasingly into Iraq," she said.