Syrian Fighting Fuels Growing Refugee Crisis in Region

The Syrian refugee crisis, which is already straining aid groups and fueling tensions in neighboring countries, will get much worse if that nation’s civil war continues through the year, U.S. officials said.

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford told a congressional panel yesterday in Washington that the number of Syrian refugees may quadruple to 4 million by the end of the year, surpassing the 2.7 million Afghans now listed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as the largest refugee population.