Military escalation in Syria will worsen civilians' plight Red Cross
GENEVA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Any escalation of the Syrian crisis following an apparent chemical weapons attack will aggravate civilian suffering, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.
Areas plagued by heavy fighting, including the countryside around Damascus, eastern Aleppo and Deir Ezzor province, are already reeling from breakdowns of services such as water, electricity and garbage collection, it said in a statement.
The ICRC, an independent humanitarian agency, said it was appalled by reports of a poison gas attack on Aug. 21 and urged warring parties to respect the absolute ban on chemical weapons use under international law.
There are acute shortages of medical supplies, food and water in several areas in Syria cut off from aid supplies for months, according to the ICRC, which called for unconditional access to deliver relief supplies.
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"Further escalation will likely trigger more displacement and add to humanitarian needs, which are already immense," said Magne Barth, head of the ICRC delegation in Syria.
"In large parts of rural Damascus for example, people are dying because they lack medical supplies and because there are not enough medical personnel to attend to them," he said, adding that some go hungry because food does not reach them regularly.
ICRC water engineers are trying to repair a damaged pipeline in Hama that serves some 1.3 million people, spokeswoman Dibeh Fakhr said. The pipeline in al-Waar, damaged in heavy clashes about two weeks ago, brings water from Homs to Hama.
The United Nations says that in the besieged areas of Damascus and Rural Damascus, 600,000 people are believed to be in a critical situation due to frequent power cuts, lack of water supplies and shortages of basic goods.
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I think it's quite clear that attacks on Syria would most likely kill more civilians than all the chemical weapons used in Syria so far.