The Syria tragedy has taken a new nasty turn as more than a quarter of a million people have fled a Russian-backed government onslaught on southern Syria. For nearly two weeks, regime forces and their Russian allies have battered rebel-held parts of southern Syri8a with air strikes, rocket fire, and barrel bombs.
These facts have been made public not by any warring group but by the United Nations itself. The entire Syrian society is in the grip of trauma, fear and hopelessness. There appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel. All global powers' approach to the Syrian cauldron is characterised by tunnelled vision.