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Kerry visits Syrian war refugees

July 19, 2013 at 12:16AM

Secretary of State John Kerry visit at Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp included an aerial view. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

ZAATARI CAMP, Jordan – Secretary of State John Kerry got a firsthand view of the grinding war in Syria on Thursday, visiting a sprawling refugee camp that houses 115,000 Syrians who have fled the fighting and hearing bitter complaints that the world has forgotten them. Kerry met with six Syrian refugees who angrily asked why world powers have not set up a no-fly zone or protective humanitarian zone inside Syria, something the Obama administration has considered but decided against for now. One of the Syrian women Kerry met asked him, "What are you waiting for?"

"They are frustrated and angry at the world," Kerry said afterward. If he were in their shoes, he would also be asking for help anywhere he could get it, he added.

The camp is a tent city sprung from the desert that has become Jordan's fifth-largest city. It is largely a city of women and children.

Washington Post

This aerial view shows the Zaatari refugee camp on Thursday, July 18, 2013 near the Jordanian city of Mafraq, some 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the Jordan-Syria border. Visiting the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, Kerry met six representatives of its 115,000 population, all of whom appealed to him to create no-fly zones and set up humanitarian safe havens inside Syria. The Obama administration has boosted assistance to the Syrian opposition but has noted grave complications and astronomic costs in enforcing no-fly zones or protecting the opposition on Syrian soil. (AP Photo/Mandel Ngan, Pool) AP10ThingsToSee (AP/The Minnesota Star Tribune)