U.N. Refugee Agency Reports Worsening Situation in Syria GENEVA - Thousands of Damascus residents are fleeing over the border into Lebanon to escape the latest upsurge in violence and the collapse of basic services back home, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday. The agency also expressed fears for up to 1 million Syrians displaced by conflict and for thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria who have been caught in the cross-fire of an increasingly sectarian conflict. Between 8,500 and 30,000 Syrians have crossed into Lebanon in the last 48 hours alone, a refugee agency spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, told reporters in Geneva. "What's different is that these people are coming from Damascus," Ms. Fleming added in an interview. They joined an exodus of more than 112,000 Syrians who have already registered as refugees in neighboring Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan and many thousands more who have fled but not registered. United Nations relief agencies say three-quarters of them are women and children, often arriving in a desperate state with no more than the clothes they are wearing. Many in the latest influx to Lebanon arrived in cars jammed with possessions, Ms. Fleming said. The escalating battles between government and rebel forces in Damascus and other places have created enormous hardships for civilians who remain, some of them trapped by the fighting. Ms. Fleming said that shops are running out of supplies and closing, and that relief agency workers are hearing that state and private banks have run out of funds. The deterioration in means of support has raised concerns about Syrians driven from their homes but still in the country, a group now estimated at up to 1 million by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the Syrian partner delivering relief provided by international agencies. Many of the displaced people had sought refuge in the capital and may now face renewed displacement, Ms. Fleming said. "Many Syrians in general are running low on resources and increasingly turning to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other organizations for help," she added. Among the most vulnerable are 8,000 refugees from other countries, mainly Iraq, who have fled homes in the Damascus suburb of Seida Zeinab in the face of the fighting and violent threats targeting them, Ms. Fleming said. At least 2,000 refugees, along with many Syrians, fled their homes to take shelter in parks and schools in the suburb of Jaramana, she said. Ms. Fleming said the refugee agency had been informed of a family of seven Iraqis killed in their home last week in Damascus. She also said that frightened Iraqi refugees had been calling the refugee agency to report threatening phone calls, some accusing them of siding with the government. Highlighting the sectarian tone of the violence reported in recent weeks, relief workers also say that some Iraqis have received calls accusing them of being Shiite Muslims. Sunnis are the majority in Syria and form the backbone of the uprising against the government. Iraqi authorities, responding to the crisis, have been seeking to evacuate their nationals, sending two aircraft to Syria on Thursday and 80 buses in recent days, according to relief agency workers, who said Iraq was preparing to send two more aircraft in the next few days. In Jordan, where the United Nations has already registered more than 30,000 Syrian refugees, authorities are now building a camp capable of absorbing 115,000 people, Ms. Fleming said.