16 killed in Syria clashes, UN leader cites refugees concern

At least 16 civilians were killed in an army offensive and clashes around Damascus on Friday Sixteen civilians were killed in an army offensive and clashes around Damascus on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has confirmed. Fighting raged around Damascus as Internet and phone links in Syria remained cut for a second day, with rebels capturing an oil field near the Iraqi border.
The road from the capital to Damascus airport was reopened, a day after fighting during which a bus carrying airport employees was hit by a shell, killing two people.
Despite the resumption of air traffic on Friday, there were heavy clashes between rebels and troops in the area, airport sources said. Warplanes pounded the northeastern town of Irbin amid shelling of orchards in the south of the capital, all opposition strongholds where rebels have rear bases, they added.
A military source in Damascus said the army had taken control of the western side of the road leading to the airport and a small portion on the east by dawn, allowing travellers to move through.
"But the most difficult part is yet to come. The army wants to take control of the eastern side, where there are thousands of terrorists and this will take several days," he said, using the regime term for rebel fighters.
The army, meanwhile, withdrew from Omar oil field, one of the last regime positions east of Deir Ezzor city near the Iraqi border, giving rebels control over the country's major fields.
Meanwhile, UN leader Ban Ki-moon has predicted that Syrian refugee numbers will surge to more than 700,000 by January as the country's conflict reaches "appalling heights of brutality."
The UN estimates there are more than 460,000 Syrian refugees in countries around Syria and in North Africa. Another 20,000 are in Europe, Ban told the UN General Assembly.
The overflow of the conflict was apparent in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday, where shooting broke out between rival Sunni and Shiite districts as news arrived that 22 Sunni volunteers from the city had been killed in Syria.