« Back to article | Print this article |
The nightmare for the people of Syria just refuses to die down. Although the majority of citizens in the country are trying their best to topple down the 'tyrannical' regime of Bashar al-Assad, the despot and his army have unleashed a wave of terror and violence attacking its own men, women and children.
According to sources cited by the United Nations, up to 8,000 to 11,000 people have been killed, primarily protesters but also including 2,200 to 3,600 armed combatants.Many more have been injured, and tens of thousands of protesters have been imprisoned.
However, the lives of thousands of common Syrians have changed forever, with many compelled to flee from their country and take shelter in refugee camps on its borders with Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
More than a year has passed since the wave of Arab Spring touched Syria, but still the ground reality has been far from normal.
Rediff.com presents some pictures capturing the terrified lives of defenceless Syrian refugees as they struggle to make a new beginning.
A Syrian refugee prays as his family sits in front of their tent at a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Yayladagi in Hatay province.
Please click NEXT to see more pictures...
Click here for more Realtime News on Syria crisis!
Syrian children shout at a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Altinozu in Hatay province. Words on the forehead of the boy (L) read "Down with Bashar" and words on his chest read "Children of Heaven". A small banner (R) reads "Bashar, leave".
Syrian refugees shout slogans as they protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Yayladagi in Hatay province.
A Turkish woman talks to her relative, a Syrian refugee, through a fence at a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Yayladagi in Hatay province.
A tray of food lies next to a wounded Syrian man on a hospital bed in Antakya city, Hatay province in Turkey, close to the Syrian border. Thousands have crossed the border from Syria to Turkey marking a sharp acceleration in numbers fleeing unrest in Syria.
A Syrian refugee woman gives her child a shower in the kitchen of an abandoned school in Wadi Khaled area, northern Lebanon. More than 3,800 displaced Syrian refugees have registered with the United Nations refugee agency in north Lebanon, which borders Syria's Homs province, a particularly bloody centre of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian refugees chat as they spend time at a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Yayladagi in Hatay province.
A Syrian refugee child sleeps at a mosque at the northern Lebanese border village of Boqaya, near the Lebanese-Syrian border. From the Lebanese village of Boqaya, Syrian soldiers could be seen across the border deploying along a stream in Arida village and entering homes. Lebanese soldiers also fanned out across their side of the frontier.
Rehab, who lives in the Lebanese border village of Debbabiyeh and whose brother died in Tel Kelakh, reacts in her home in northern Lebanon near the Lebanese-Syrian border, in May, 2011.
Bodies littered the streets of the Syrian town of Tel Kelakh after black-clad gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were despatched to crush dissent, refugees who fled into Lebanon said.
Syrian refugees eat at a mosque at the northern Lebanese border village of Boqaya, near the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Syrian children who fled Idlib in Syria are seen outside the refugees camp near the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern city of Yayladagi.
A wounded Syrian man rests at a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Yayladagi in Hatay province.
Syrian boys walk shoulder to shoulder in the rain at the Boynuyogun refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province. There are 1,750 Syrian refugees living in the camp which was set up by the Turkish Red Crescent.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry says there are currently some 10,000 Syrian refugees living in six different camps in Turkey.
Syrian refugee men perform the noon prayers at a makeshift mosque in the Boynuyogun refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province.
Syrian refugees, who fled the violence in Homs, sit around a stove during an interview with Reuters in a temporary home at Aarsal town in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa.
Syrian refugees, who fled the violence in Syria, are seen at a building hosting them temporarily, in the hillside town of Arsal in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
A Syrian resident attempts to cross back into the Syrian Hilat village carrying some food supplies from the northern Lebanese border area of Debbabiyeh, near the Lebanese-Syrian border.
A Syrian refugee lifts up his baby during a protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Yayladagi in Hatay province.
Sawssan Abdelwahab, who fled Idlib in Syria, walks with her children outside the refugees camp near the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern city of Yayladagi.