A fire trail from what activists said was a missile launched during clashes between forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad with Army of Islam fighters, on the eastern mountains of Qalamoun overlooking the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta of Damascus, yesterday.

AFP/Jeddah

The United Nations should consider a peacekeeping force for war-ravaged Syria to help curb the surge of refugees which is destabilising the region and beyond, the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) said yesterday.
An emergency meeting of the 57-member group called on the UN Security Council to urgently consider creating “a multi-dimensional UN peacekeeping operation in Syria as a prelude to restoring security and stability in the country”.
It also called for more to be done to find a rapid political solution to the Syrian conflict.
The OIC, which is the collective voice of the Muslim world, blamed the humanitarian crisis on “the war crimes committed by the regime in Syria”.
More than 4mn Syrians have fled their country where President Bashar al-Assad is battling various resistance organisations, including the Islamic State militant group which has carried out widespread atrocities.
The migration from Syria has created a crisis in Europe, where Germany alone is expected to receive 800,000 asylum-seekers from Syria and elsewhere this year.
“The meeting stressed the common responsibility of all nations, particularly OIC member states, to open their doors to the Syrian refugees as a mark of Islamic compassion and solidarity,” a closing statement from the meeting said.
The OIC noted that more than half of its member states are not signatories to the UN Convention on Refugees and urged them to sign.  
The OIC further “urged all countries to refrain from extending military support to the Assad regime”.
That call comes as Washington accuses Moscow of a military build-up in Syria, where Russia has backed Assad against the uprising of more than four years.
The OIC said Syria’s neighbours who have taken refugees have borne “a huge portion” of the humanitarian burden and the international community should give them more support.
Meanwhile, a monitor has said Russia is building an airstrip in the Syrian regime’s stronghold Latakia province, and has brought hundreds of technicians and military advisers to the site.
 “Russian forces are building a long runway capable of accommodating large aircraft near the Hmaymeen military airport in Latakia province,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The monitor, which relies on a network of civilian, military and medical sources inside Syria, said “the Russians are preventing Syrians, whether military or civilian, from entering the area where they are building the runway”.

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