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Lebanese town calls for help amid Syrian refugee rush

ASRAL, Lebanon, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Officials in a Lebanese border town said Sunday they were at the limits of their capacity to shelter Syrian refugees fleeing the fighting in their own country.

Asral Deputy Mayor Ahmed Fliti told The (Beirut) Daily Star his community needed international assistance in housing and feeding the nearly 2,000 Syrian families that have poured into the area.

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"We have placed them in mosques, wedding halls and in some host residencies, but we are running out of places," Fliti said, adding the United Nations and other international aid organizations should pitch in.

The Daily Star said the refugees were mainly from the mountainous Oalamoun area adjacent to Lebanon's Bekka Valley. Syrian forces were reportedly on the offensive in Oalamoun in recent days trying to cut rebel supply lines to the suburbs of Damascus.

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