U.N. Says Syria Fighting Worsens Humanitarian Crisis

BEIRUT (AP) – U.N. officials say the latest fighting in northeast Syria is compounding an already dire humanitarian situation.  According to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, at least 160,000  civilians have been displaced since the Turkish offensive began on Oct. 9. That’s mostly from violence around the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain.  Dujarric told reporters Monday that the U.N.  World Food Program has so far provided immediate food assistance to more than 70,000 people fleeing towns as the fighting continues.  He said “most of the displaced are staying with relatives or host communities, but increasing numbers are arriving at collective shelters in the area.”  Northeast Syria was already facing a humanitarian crisis before the Turkish offensive, with 1.8 million of  the 3 million women, children and men in the region in need of assistance, “including over 910,000 in acute need,” Dujarric said.  He said there are also “heightened concerns” for vulnerable  people in camps for the displaced, including al-Hol. That camp holds some 68,000 people who fled the last battlefields of the Islamic State group – 94% of them women and children.