More than 700,000 will flee Syria by end of year, says UN as it asks for more aid to help refugees

• UNHCR warns it has only one third of the funding it needs
• Around 2,000 to 3,000 Syrians are fleeing violence every day
• Syrian government sends nationwide text warning rebels it is 'game over'
• Message urges insurgents to lay down their weapons

More than 700,000 people could have fled Syria by the end of the year, the United Nations said yesterday.
The estimate came as the UN refugee agency, in conjunction with 51 aid agencies, asked for more aid to help deal with the refugees.
So far donors have given around £100million toward humanitarian assistance for the estimated 294,000 Syrians who have fled abroad but the UN says £302million is needed.

Humanitarian crisis: Syrian refugee Ghassan Baradan, 50, who fled violence in Daraa, in the Zaatari Refugee Camp, in Mafraq, Jordan. The UN is asking for more money to help those fleeing the civil war in Syria

With no end in sight to the 18-month conflict and 2,000 to 3,000 Syrians crossing daily into neighbouring countries, humanitarian groups are preparing to help up to 710,000 by the end of the year, the UN said.
This includes Syrians who have already fled abroad but have yet to come forward to register as refugees.
Panos Moumtzis, Syria coordinator for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: ‘We only have one third of the funding we need to respond and we are running out of time.’
Almost 95,000 Syrians have found refuge in Jordan, followed by almost 88,000 in Turkey and 78,000 in Lebanon. Some 33,000 Syrians have fled to Iraq, which recently reopened its border crossing at al-Qaim.

Mr Baradan's 46-year-old wife wipes her eyes as she speaks during an interview at the camp: Humanitarian groups are preparing to help up to 710,000 refugees from Syria by the end of the year, the UN said

The urgent call for help came as Syrian authorities sent text messages nationwide with a message for rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime saying: 'Game over'.
The messages signed by the Syrian Arab Army urged the rebels to surrender their weapons and warned the countdown to evict foreign fighters has begun.
The texts appear to be part of the regime's psychological battle against the rebels, but are thought to be highly unlikely to have any effect on fighters intent on toppling Mr Assad.

Syrian rebel righters in Aleppo: The Syrian government has sent text messages nationwide saying that it is 'game over' for the insurgency and urging rebels to lay down their arms

Civil war: Syrian army soldiers pore over a map while on patrol to root out rebel fighters from the Suleiman al-Halabi neighbourhood of Aleppo. After 18 months of fighting the two sides are locked in a stalemate

Syrians say they began receiving the messages a day after rebels bombed a military command centre in Damascus - a major security breach of the heavily guarded capital.
People with mobile subscriptions received the messages while those with prepaid phones did not, residents of Damascus said.
Despite the high-profile attack, the two sides have been locked in a stalemate after 18 months of conflict.
Activists claim the death toll since the conflict began in March last year has recently topped 30,000, with nearly two-thirds of the casualties reported in the past six months.
In August, Syrian army helicopters dropped leaflets warning rebels in Damascus to hand over their arms and seek amnesty.

Black smoke rises from Syria's army headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday: Twin blasts targeting the army HQ set off hours of sporadic gunbattles and a raging fire inside the heavily guarded compound

A Lebanese TV station yesterday broadcast footage showing Syrian government troops driving rebels from a building they had briefly occupied a day earlier after a double car bomb attack on the military HQ.
The images from Lebanon's Al Manar TV station further demonstrated the scale of the security breach of the heavily guarded capital by rebels determined to topple the Assad regime.
The fighters detonated car bombs that engulfed the army headquarters in flames, followed by three hours of gunbattles in and around the compound yesterday.
The government said four army guards were killed and 14 people were wounded, including civilians and military personnel.
The carefully orchestrated attacks were the most dramatic security breach in the centre of the capital since July, when rebels detonated explosives inside a high-level crisis meeting that killed four top regime officials, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defence minister.
Syrian activists said more than 305 people were killed across Syria yesterday, making it one of the deadliest days since the conflict began.
They included at least 40 people whose bodies were discovered in a suburb of Damascus, some of whom appeared to have been killed execution-style.