A burning helicopter emits smoke as it falls in this still image taken from amateur video said to be shot in Damascus, Monday. Fighters shot down a Syrian helicopter gunship that was firing on the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar, witnesses said. — Reuters ANKARA – Some 10,000 Syrian refugees are waiting on the Syrian side of the border as Turkey rushes to build more camps to accommodate the influx and carries out more stringent security checks on the newcomers, Turkish officials said Monday. Turkey has so far taken in more than 80,000 Syrians, and all nine Turkish refugee camps along the border are full. Until recently, newcomers were being housed in schools, dormitories or sports centers near the border while Turkish authorities scamper to construct four new camps that will increase Turkey's capacity to 100,000 refugees. Meanwhile, the United Nations appealed Monday for $54 million to help meet the growing needs of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan, particularly children who “suffer most.” The UN Children's Fund UNICEF said in a statement the funds are “urgently” needed “to meet the emergency health, protection, and water and sanitation needs of the growing numbers of Syrian refugee children and their families arriving in Jordan.” Jordan is hosting around 200,000 Syrian refugees – 17,000 are sheltered at the UN-run Zaatari refugee camp in the north and half of them are children. – Agencies
