A fire gutted a warehouse run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees near Damascus, destroying relief supplies including more than 5,000 tents, the agency said Thursday. Dalia Ashi, a media assistant with the U.N. refugee agency, said there were no casualties from the fire, which erupted early Thursday at the warehouse in Doma district, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) north of the Syrian capital, Damascus. The fire spread to nearby UNHCR offices used for conducting interviews with Iraqi refugees in Syria, she said, adding that some of the refugees suffered from smoke inhalation. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Firefighters were still struggling to bring it under control by midday, the Associated Press quoted UNHCR as saying. Syria hosts around one million Iraqi refugees who have fled the violence in their country.
