We are watching the implosion of Syria. A horrible situation is steadily deteriorating, and the worst may be yet to come. Assad could decide to use chemical and biological weapons to defeat the rebels. The Assad regime could collapse and the anarchy could intensify. Iran and Hezbollah could seize control of the country. Al Qaeda or another Radical Muslim group could seize control. A war with Israel could erupt. A war between Israel and Iran could erupt, with Syria actively siding with Iran, or with Syria caught in the crossfire. Damascus Countdown is one worst case scenario. Clearly, there are others.

“The number of Syrian refugees who have fled the conflict has reached a million,” the BBC reports, citing UN officials. “The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of people seeking haven in neighbouring countries had jumped since the beginning of the year. Half of the refugees were children, the UN said, most of them under 11 and often traumatised by their experiences. The largest numbers of refugees were seeking shelter in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. The figure includes registered refugees and newer arrivals awaiting registration.”

“Syria is spiralling towards full-scale disaster,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement, warning that the international humanitarian response capacity was “dangerously stretched.” He added: “This tragedy has to be stopped,” he added.

“The millionth refugee recorded by UNHCR was a 19-year-old mother of two called Bushra,” noted the BBC. “‘Our situation is so bad, everything is so expensive, we can’t find any work… The situation is so bad, I live with 20 other people in one room,’ Bushra told reporters in the Lebanese city of Tripoli.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that after nearly two years of fighting, the death toll in Syria has reached some 90,000 people. “I had occasion … to speak this morning with the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia. The first thing he mentioned to me was in his estimate perhaps as many as 90,000 people have been killed in Syria,” said Kerry.

“The figure is well beyond that quoted by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, who said Tuesday the number of people killed in Syria’s civil war is probably approaching 70,000,” noted AP. “She told the UN Security Council that there have probably been almost 10,000 new deaths in recent weeks.”

Please pray for the people of Syria, including the Christians who are persecuted there.

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