U.N. says 11,000 Syrians flee in past 24 hours

— At least 11,000 Syrian refugees have fled their country in single day, pouring into Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon with children and dozens of wounded, U.N. officials said Friday.

Some climbed over razor-wire border fences to seek safety.

Most of the surge in refugees was due to the 9,000 fleeing into Turkey, including more than 70 who were wounded, U.N. officials said.

Jordan and Lebanon each absorbed another 1,000 refugees.

The civil war in Syria has killed more than 36,000 people since an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in March 2011.

Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. refugee agency’s regional coordinator for the region, described the flood of people as “the highest that we have had in quite some time.”

He said the escalation — much more than the average 2,000 to 3,000 Syrians fleeing daily — raises the number of Syrian refugees registered with the agency to more than 408,000.

The new arrivals raise the number of refugees in Turkey to about 120,000.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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