Photo of Syrian refugees at a refugee camp in the Jordan, near the border with Syria
More than two million Syrians have fled their country, the UN refugee agency said today, as US officials pressed a bid to secure congressional support for military strikes on Damascus.
Amid growing expectations of US-led intervention in Syria and rising tensions, Russia's defence ministry said its early-warning system had detected the launch of two missiles in the Mediterranean, towards the eastern coastline.
Israeli media said the launches were part of a joint Israeli-US military exercise. although the army said it was not aware of any missiles being launched in the Mediterranean.
The grim statistics of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees were described by the European Union's aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva as an "appalling milestone".
"Syria is haemorrhaging women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than the clothes on their backs," said a UNHCR statement released in Geneva.
It pointed out that on September 3, 2012, the agency had registered just 230,671 Syrian refugees.
In addition to the two million Syrians living as refugees, some 4.25 million people have been displaced within the devastated country since the conflict began in March 2011, according to UN figures.
"Syria has become the great tragedy of this century," UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said, describing the situation as "a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparallelled in recent history."
Georgieva, in comments made in Brussels, said the refugee exodus had reached "tragic" proportions and marked an "appalling milestone".
"More than half of all those refugees are children," she noted.
Correspondents and witnesses have reported an even greater exodus of Syrians into neighbouring countries since US President Barack Obama warned last week he was ready to launch military strikes on Assad's regime over its alleged use of chemical weapons.
Obama shocked Washington and the world on Saturday when he decided to seek support for military action in Syria from Congress, putting his plans on hold and effectively giving more time for civilians to flee.
As part of White House strategy to persuade sceptical lawmakers to back what Obama said would be "limited" and "narrow" action in Syria, the US secretaries of state and defence were to go before a Senate panel today.
In what will be one of the most high-profile political set pieces in Washington in weeks, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel will testify to the Senate Foreign Relations committee.
Kerry will argue that failing to act in Syria "unravels the deterrent impact of the international norm against chemical weapons use," a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
Inaction also "endangers our friends and our partners along Syria's borders... and risks emboldening Assad and his key allies - (Lebanon's Shiite militant group) Hezbollah and Iran," the official warned.
France, which backs Obama in his determination to launch a military intervention in Syria, on Monday released an intelligence report which said Assad's forces had carried out a "massive" chemical attack last month.
Based on military and foreign intelligence services, the report said the regime launched an attack "combining conventional means with the massive use of chemical agents" on rebel-held areas near Damascus on August 21.
It said that based on videos, French intelligence had counted at least 281 dead but that reports of up to 1,500 killed were consistent with such heavy use of chemical weapons.
"The attack on August 21 could only have been ordered and carried out by the regime," the report said.
Assad, in a rare interview with Western media released on Monday, warned that military strikes risked setting off a wider conflict in the Middle East.
"We cannot only talk about a Syrian response, but what could happen after the first strike," Assad said.
"Everyone will lose control of the situation once the powder keg explodes. Chaos and extremism will spread. There is a risk of regional war."
He said France should consider the consequences of taking part in military action.
"There will be repercussions, negative ones of course, on the interests of France," Assad said.
France has emerged as the main US ally in the Syria crisis after the British parliament last week rejected involvement in any military action.
Efforts to win UN backing for military action have been stymied by Russia, which said Monday it remained totally unconvinced that the regime carried out the attack.
China, which in the past has joined Russia in blocking UN Security Council resolutions against Assad, also said it was "gravely concerned" about the prospect of "unilateral military actions" against Syria.
Fighting continued to rage in Syria meanwhile, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog saying on Monday that nearly 90 rebels were killed near Damascus in the previous 48 hours.
© Thomson Reuters 2013