Angelina Jolie in Jordan: Syrian refugees telling me ‘horrific’ stories
In this handout image provided by UNHCR, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie meets with refugees on the Jordanian border minutes after they crossed from Syria on September 10, 2012 in Amman, Jordan. With shelling clearly audible and visible across the border in Syria, some 200 refugees made the dangerous crossing under cover of night. Authorities estimate hundreds of families are fleeing the violence and seeking safety across the border every night.
Actress Angelina Jolie today said Syrian refugees confided fears to her that "there will be no more of us" left in Syria, where an 18-month battle between government forces and an armed rebellion has already taken over 20,000 lives, said the Associated Press.
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Jolie, the United Nations refugee agency's special envoy, arrived in Jordan early today and met with refugees at the Zaatari camp near the Syrian border, according to Jordan's Al Bawaba.
"What is very heartbreaking is when Syrian people ask you why you think no one is able to find a solution for them," Jolie told reporters after the visit, saying she heard "horrific" stories about the level of violence there.
Many Western countries, including Jolie's United States, have openly called on Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to relinquish power in the face of an armed insurrection against his rule, but international efforts to end the violence there have not succeeded.
Syrian activists today told Agence-France Press that regime forces are continuing their brutal assault on Aleppo in a bid for total control of the partly rebel-held city.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled the country. Jolie is scheduled to visit Syrian refuges in Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq during her trip, said AP.
The Zaatari facility she went to today provides shelter to some 30,000 Syrians, a small number when compared to Jordan's 185,000-strong Syrian refugee population — the region's largest, according to Jordan's Al Bawaba.
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