New exodus amid raging war

Thousands of Syrians were stuck on the Turkish border yesterday after fleeing a major regime offensive backed by Russia near Aleppo where a new humanitarian disaster appeared to be unfolding.

Tens of thousands of civilians are reported to have joined the exodus after fierce fighting by advancing government forces who severed the rebels' main supply route into Syria's second city.

Western nations have accused the Syrian government of sabotaging peace talks with its military offensive, and Washington has demanded Moscow halt its campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

The UN Security Council was due to meet later yesterday to discuss the faltering peace process, as Nato head Jens Stoltenberg warned Russian air strikes were "undermining the efforts to find a political solution".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor that relies on a network of sources on the ground, estimates that 40,000 people have fled the regime offensive near Aleppo.

"Thousands of people, mainly families with women and children, are waiting to enter Turkey," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Aleppo province is one of the main strongholds of Syria's armed opposition, which is facing possibly its worst moment since the beginning of the war in 2011.

The Turkish border crossing of Oncupinar near Kilis, which faces the Syrian frontier post of Bab al-Salama north of Aleppo, was closed yesterday morning, an AFP journalist saw.

Footage released Thursday by activists showed hundreds of people, including many children, heading towards the Turkish border, some carrying their belongings in plastic bags on their backs.

More than 260,000 people have died in Syria's conflict and more than half the population has been displaced.

Top diplomats from countries involved in trying to resolve the conflict are set to meet again on February 11, but tensions between them remain.

Moscow on Thursday accused Ankara, a key backer of Assad's opponents, of actively preparing to invade Syria, saying it had spotted troops and military equipment on the border.

Turkey in turn accused Moscow of trying to divert attention from its own "crimes" in Syria, and said Aleppo was threatened with a "siege of starvation". It said Turkey had the right to take any measures to protect its security.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday blasted the Russia's accusation as "laughable".

"I find this Russian statement laughable... rather it is Russia that is currently engaged in an invasion of Syria," Erdogan said, quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

Ties between Moscow, which supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Ankara, which is a staunch backer of the opposition, have been in tatters since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on the Syrian border in November, claiming it had entered Turkish airspace.

In another sign of the spreading international ramifications of the five-year-old Syrian war, Saudi Arabia said it was ready to participate in ground operations against Islamic State in Syria if the US-led alliance decided to launch them.

"If there is any willingness in the coalition to go in the ground operation, we will contribute positively in that," Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP.

The United States welcomed the Saudi offer, which together with any Turkish incursion would further embroil regional powers in a conflict that pitches Sunni-backed fighters against Damascus and forces backed by Moscow and Shia Iran.

Syria's army has been on the offensive since staunch government ally Russia began an aerial campaign in support of regime forces on September 30. Since then, the regime has recaptured several key rebel towns in Latakia province -- Assad's coastal heartland -- and advanced in Aleppo province and in Daraa in the south.

Yesterday, the army seized the town of Ratyan, north of Aleppo, with support from dozens of Russian air strikes.

Pro-government troops backed by Russian warplanes also retook a rebel bastion in Daraa used as a launch pad for attacks on the provincial capital, the Observatory said.