Four years of hell: Aid groups say world is failing Syria’s civilians
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04:31 - Source:
CNN
UNRWA chief: What I saw shattered, devastated me
Story highlights
Report: Syrian conflict is "a stain on the conscience of the international community"
U.N. resolutions aimed at helping civilians have failed to change the situation, it says
At least 220,000 people are estimated to have been killed in four years of war
CNN
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Four years. At least 220,000 people killed – more than one every 10 minutes. Millions displaced.
The Syrian civil war is a human calamity and it’s getting worse, according to a furious new report from more than 20 aid groups.
U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at protecting civilians caught up in the conflict have failed miserably, the humanitarian organizations say in the report released Thursday.
“This spiraling catastrophe is a stain on the conscience of the international community,” says the report, whose signatories include Oxfam and Save the Children.
“We’re worried that, as we approach the fourth anniversary, this could turn into a situation of acceptance – ‘Oh, that’s just the way it is over there’ – and that mustn’t be,” Nigel Timmins, deputy director for Oxfam Great Britain, told CNN.
‘Ever-increasing destruction’
It highlights the paltry results of a Security Council resolution passed in February 2014 that called for an increase in humanitarian aid, a halt to attacks on civilians, an end to kidnapping and torture and the lifting of sieges of populated areas.
“In the 12 months since Resolution 2139 was passed, civilians in Syria have witnessed ever-increasing destruction, suffering and death,” the report says.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, has reported that 2014 was the deadliest year so far in the grinding conflict that began in March 2011 as an uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and splintered into a chaotic civil war.
More than 76,000 people were killed in the violence in Syria last year, nearly 18,000 of them civilians, according to the observatory.
The conflict has brought allegations of atrocities carried out by al-Assad’s forces and enabled ISIS’ savage rule over parts of the country. Attempts at peace talks involving the government and opposition have so far gone nowhere.
As the war threatens to sow further chaos in the region, the United States and its allies are bombing ISIS targets in Syria and working to arm and train rebel groups.
Catalog of misery
The aid groups’ report, entitled “Failing Syria,” reeled off a list of worsening problems reported by international agencies:
The number of people in need of humanitarian aid in Syria increased by nearly a third during 2014, rising to 12.2 million from 9.3 million at the end of 2013.
That includes a jump of more than a million children in need, up from 4.3 million in December 2013 to 5.6 million in December 2014.
A leap in the number of refugees during 2014, from 2.4 million to 3.8 million – and a 1.1 million rise, to 7.6 million, in internally displaced people.
Aid convoys are finding it harder to get to the people who need their help, reaching 63% fewer beneficiaries in 2014 than in 2013.
Financial support is weakening: Syria crisis appeals were only 57% funded in 2014, compared with 71% in 2013.
The report called on Security Council members to “use their influence with the warring parties and their financial resources to put an end to the suffering of Syrian civilians.”
In Washington, a group of Syrian Americans and other supporters gathered near the White House on Wednesday to mark the four years of bloodshed and read the names of 100,000 people who were killed in the violence.
Crisis at refugee camp
A U.N. aid official told CNN of the crisis unfolding at one particular refugee camp in Syria that he had just visited.
“What I saw yesterday really shattered and devastated me,” said Pierre Krahenbuhl, the head of of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees who has been working in conflict zones for 20 years.
Around 18,000 Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk camp are in “dire” need of food and health aid, he said Wednesday, describing seeing enfeebled men and a fainting pregnant woman waiting for assistance.
The ongoing conflict is adding to the plight of the camp’s inhabitants.
“You have inside the camp a number of armed groups and of course you then have government armed forces around it,” Krahenbuhl said. “There is this link between the presence of armed groups inside and the suffering taking place.”
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ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Images
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A wounded child walks at a makeshift hospital in the rebel-held town of Douma after being injured in a reported airstrike by government forces on Tuesday, December 23. Douma, located near Damascus, has been under government siege for more than a year, with residents facing dwindling food and medical supplies.The United Nations estimates nearly 200,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising in March 2011 spiraled into civil war.
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YOUSSEF KARWASHAN/AFP/Getty Images
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A Christmas tree and a crèche made out of rubble are set up on a square in the, predominantly Christian, government-held Hamidiyeh neighborhood of Homs on Monday, December 22.
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ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Images
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Syrian children await medical treatment at a makeshift clinic in the besieged rebel town of Douma, on Sunday, December 21, near Damascus.
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Karam Almasri/NurPhoto/ZUMA Wire
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A Syrian rebel fighter keeps an eye on government troops in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday, December 17.
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KARAM AL-MASRI/AFP/Getty Images
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A man drives his motorcycle through a puddle in Aleppo on Wednesday, November 26.
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A Syrian opposition fighter fires at Bashar al-Assad Regime forces in the Handarat district of Aleppo on Thursday, November 20.
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BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images
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Syrian boys play in the ruins of a destroyed building in Aleppo on Tuesday, November 18.
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A wounded man is treated at a makeshift hospital in Damascus, Syria, following a reported air strike by government forces on Tuesday, November 11.
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Members of the Syrian Civil Defense carry an injured man after an alleged air strike in Aleppo on November 11.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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A member of the Syrian Civil Defense walks through a cloud of dust after an alleged air strike by government forces in Aleppo on November 11.
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A father cries over his son at a physical therapy center in Eastern al-Ghouta outside Damascus on Thursday, November 6. The boy had his leg tendons cut after he was injured in an airstrike four months before.
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A blindfolded man suspected of passing military information to the Syrian government waits to be interrogated by Free Syrian Army fighters Monday, October 6, in Aleppo.
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Badra Mamet/Reuters/Landov
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Medics at a field hospital in Douma, Syria, attend to a man who was injured in what activists said were two airstrikes carried out by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, September 20.
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AMMAR ABDULLAH/Reuters/Landov
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Free Syrian Army fighters rest inside a damaged room in Aleppo on Tuesday, September 16, during what activists said were clashes with forces loyal to al-Assad.
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Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
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Syrian government forces walk down a street in Halfaya, Syria, after taking the city from rebel forces on Friday, September 12.
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Gil Eliyahu/AP
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Al-Qaeda-linked rebels from Syria gather around vehicles carrying U.N. peacekeepers from Fiji before releasing them Thursday, September 11, in the Golan Heights. The 45 peacekeepers were captured in the Golan Heights after rebels seized control of a border crossing between Syria and the Israeli-occupied territory.
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BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images
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Syrian opposition fighters take position behind sandbags in Aleppo on Thursday, September 11.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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Syrians fleeing the violence stand next to their belongings as they attempt to cross into Turkey on Sunday, September 7.
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Fadi al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images
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A boy looks at bodies lying outside a hospital after a barrel-bomb attack in Aleppo on Friday, September 5.
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MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images
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A U.N. convoy moves in the buffer zone near the Golan Heights as they are escorted by Syrian rebel fighters near the Syrian village of Jubata Al Khashab on Tuesday, September 2.
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Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters/Landov
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Residents of Aleppo remove a body from debris on Friday, August 29, after what activists claim was shelling by forces loyal to al-Assad.
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JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
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Druze men watch from the Golan Heights side of the Quneitra border with Syria as smoke rises during fighting between rebels and forces loyal to al-Assad on Wednesday, August 27.
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LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
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This image was taken during a government guided tour in Mleiha, Syria, one day after Syrian government forces retook the town after a months-long battle with rebels, according to a military source and state television on Friday, August 15.
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Ahmed Muhammed Ali/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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Residents inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings in Aleppo after Syrian regime helicopters allegedly dropped barrel bombs there on Wednesday, August 13.
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Ahmed Muhammed Ali/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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Smoke trails over Aleppo following barrel bombs that were allegedly dropped by the Syrian regime on an opposition-controlled area on Monday, August 11.
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Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times/Landov
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Photographs of victims of the Bashar al-Assad regime are displayed as a Syrian Army defector known as "Caesar," center, appears in disguise to speak before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington. The briefing on Thursday, July 31, was called "Assad's Killing Machine Exposed: Implications for U.S. Policy." Caesar was apparently a witness to al-Assad's brutality and has smuggled more than 50,000 photographs depicting the torture and execution of more than 10,000 dissidents.
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HAMID KHATIB/reuters/LANDOV
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Syrian rebel fighters take up positions behind sandbags in Aleppo on Wednesday, July 30.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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People carry an injured man away from the site of an airstrike, reportedly carried out by Syrian government forces, in Aleppo on Sunday, July 27.
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AMR RADWAN AL-HOMSI/AFP/Getty Images
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Rebel fighters execute two men Friday, July 25, in Binnish, Syria. The men reportedly were charged by an Islamic religious court with detonating several car bombs.
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AHMED DEEB/AFP/Getty Images
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A rebel fighter stands on a dust-covered street in Aleppo on Monday, July 21.
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HOSAM KATAN/REUTERS/LANDOV
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A man clears debris at the site of an alleged barrel-bomb attack in Aleppo on Tuesday, July 15.
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KARAM AL-MASRI/AFP/Getty Images
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A woman walks amid debris after an airstrike by government forces July 15 in Aleppo.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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People walk on a dust-filled street after a reported barrel-bomb attack in Aleppo on Monday, July 7.
A man carries a girl injured in a reported barrel-bomb attack by government forces June 3 in Aleppo.
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MAHMOUD TAHA/AFP/Getty Images
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A rebel fighter loads an anti-tank cannon outside Latakia, Syria, on Sunday, June 1.
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KHALED KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images
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A rescue worker pulls a girl from rubble in Aleppo on June 1 after reported bombing by government forces.
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Pan Chaoyue/Xinhua/Sipa USA
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A giant poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday, May 31, as the capital prepares for presidential elections.
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LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
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Portraits of al-Assad dominate the cityscape in central Damascus on Tuesday, May 27. Al-Assad is firmly in power three years into the civil war, while the opposition remains weak and fragmented and extremists grow in numbers and influence.
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BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images
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The father of a 3-month-old girl weeps Monday, May 26, after she was pulled from rubble following a barrel-bomb strike in Aleppo.
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BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images
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A woman stands in a heavily damaged building in Aleppo on May 26.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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An injured man lies in a hospital bed after alleged airstrikes by government forces in Aleppo on Sunday, May 18.
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Ghassan Najjar/Reuters/Landov
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Buildings in Homs, Syria, lie in ruins Saturday, May 10, days after an evacuation truce went into effect. Thousands of displaced residents returned to the city.
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Associated Press
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Rescuers carry a man wounded by a mine in the Bustan al-Diwan neighborhood of Homs on May 10.
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AFP/Getty Images
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A Syrian woman carries a suitcase along a street in the Juret al-Shayah district of Homs on May 10.
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Residents carry their belongings in the al-Hamidieh neighborhood of Homs on May 10.
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A woman injured when a mine went off is carried in Homs on May 10.
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Residents return to damaged dwellings in Homs on May 10.
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Debris lies on a deserted street in Homs on Thursday, May 8.
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A mosque is seen through shattered glass in Homs, where an evacuation truce went into effect on Wednesday, May 7.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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A wounded man is treated at a makeshift hospital in Aleppo on Sunday, May 4.
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RASEM GHAREEB/REUTERS/LANDOV
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Debris rises in what Free Syrian Army fighters said was an operation to strike a checkpoint and remove government forces in Maarat al-Numan, Syria, on Monday, May 5.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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A man helps a woman through debris after reported airstrikes by government forces on Thursday, May 1, in the Halak neighborhood of Aleppo.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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Syrians gather at the site of reported airstrikes in Aleppo on May 1. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 33 civilians were killed in the attack.
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HOSAM KATAN/REUTERS /LANDOV
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A woman runs after two barrel bombs were thrown, reportedly by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on May 1.
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HOSAM KATAN/Reuters /Landov
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A boy runs in Aleppo on Sunday, April 27, after what activists said were explosive barrels thrown by forces loyal to al-Assad.
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stringer/AFP/Getty Images
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Security and emergency medical personnel work at the site of a car bomb explosion Monday, April 14, in the Ekremah neighborhood of Homs.
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SANA/AP
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In this photo released by the state-run SANA news agency, Syrian forces take positions during clashes with rebels near the town of Rankous, Syria, on Sunday, April 13.
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stringer/AFP/Getty Images
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Flames engulf a vehicle following a car bomb Wednesday, April 9, in the Karm al-Loz neighborhood of Homs.
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KHALED KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images
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A man carries a child who was found in the rubble of an Aleppo building after it was reportedly bombed by government forces on Monday, March 18.
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BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images
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An elderly man and a child walk among debris in a residential block of Aleppo on March 18.
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MOHAMAD AL-TAYB/Getty Images
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A woman with blood on her face carries a child following a reported airstrike by government forces Saturday, March 15, in Aleppo.
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Fadi al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images
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People attempt to comfort a man in Aleppo after a reported airstrike by government forces on Sunday, March 9.
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YAZAN HOMSY/REUTERS/LANDOV
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Buildings in Homs lay in ruins on March 9.
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Syrian forces fire a cannon and a heavy machine gun loaded on a truck as they fight rebels in the Syrian town of Zara on Saturday, March 8.
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SANA / HANDOUT/EPA /LANDOV
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A handout photo released by SANA shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaking March 8 during a meeting in Damascus to mark the 51st anniversary of the 1963 revolution, when Baath Party supporters in the Syrian army seized power. Al-Assad said the country will go on with reconciliation efforts along with its fight against terrorism.
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Zein Al-Rifai/NurPhoto/Sipa USA
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Syrians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings in Aleppo following a reported airstrike by Syrian government forces on Friday, March 7.
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Sehba Press/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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People dig through the rubble of a building in Damascus that was allegedly hit by government airstrikes on Thursday, February 27.
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HOSAM KATAN/REUTERS/LANDOV
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A boy walks ahead of men carrying the body of his mother in Aleppo on Saturday, February 22. According to activists, the woman was killed when explosive barrels were thrown by forces loyal to al-Assad.
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Hosam Katan/Reuters/Landov
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A man holds a baby who survived what activists say was an airstrike by al-Assad loyalists Friday, February 14, in Aleppo.
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Aleppo Media Center AMC/AP
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In this photo provided by the anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center, Syrian men help survivors out of a building in Aleppo after it was bombed, allegedly by a Syrian regime warplane on Saturday, February 8.
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Mustafa Sultan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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Syrians gather at a site hit by barrel bombs, allegedly dropped by a regime helicopter on the opposition-controlled Mesekin Hananu district of Aleppo on February 8.
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AFP/Getty Images
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In this handout photo released by the state-run SANA news agency on February 8, civilians wave national flags in Damascus as they take part in a rally in support of President al-Assad.
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MOHAMMED WESAM/AFP/Getty Images
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A man stands next to debris in the road following a reported airstrike by Syrian government forces in Aleppo on February 8.
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MOHAMMED AL-KHATIEB/AFP/Getty Images
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Medical personnel look for survivors after a reported airstrike in Aleppo on Saturday, February 1.
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ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images
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Syrians carry a dead body following an airstrike on February 1.
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A man walks amid debris and dust on January 31.
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MOHAMMED AL-KHATIEB/AFP/Getty Images
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An injured man is covered in dust after an airstrike on January 29.
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STRinger/AFP/Getty Images
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A man tries to fix electrical wires in Aleppo on January 27.
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AMMAR ABDULLAH/REUTERS/LANDOV
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Rebels and civilians check out a crater that activists say resulted from a Syrian government airstrike on an Aleppo bus station on Tuesday, January 21.
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STRINGER/reuters/LANDOV
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Men rush to a site that Syrian government forces reportedly hit in Aleppo on January 21.
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Buildings lie in ruins in Aleppo on Sunday, January 19, after reported air raids by Syrian government planes.
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MAJD ALDEEK/AFP/Getty Images
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A child collects items from a garbage pile in Douma, northeast of the capital, on Saturday, January 18.
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FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images
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A piece of exploded mortar lies in a street in Daraya, a Syrian city southwest of Damascus, on Friday, January 17.