Syrian government officials have blamed terrorists and Islamic militants for the civil war that has killed more than 120,000 people, according to activists. The U.N. said in July that 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the conflict, and has not updated that figure since.
The conflict began as a largely peaceful uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule in March 2011. It gradually became an armed conflict after some opposition supporters took up arms to fight a government crackdown on dissent. Over the past year, the fighting took on sectarian overtones with predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels fighting Assad's regime that is dominated by Alawites, an offshoot Shiite group.
Thousands of foreign fighters have joined Sunni rebels in the battle against Assad, while the regime troops have been backed up by fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group in the past months.
The fighting has triggered a humanitarian crisis on a massive scale, driving nearly 7 million people from their homes and destroying a country that once offered subsidized health care, including immunizations.
Nearly all Syrian children were vaccinated against polio before the conflict began more than 2 1/2 years ago.
The polio virus, a highly contagious disease, usually infects children in unsanitary conditions through the consumption of food or liquid contaminated with feces. It attacks the nerves and can kill or paralyze, and can spread widely and unnoticed before it starts crippling children. The disease was last reported in Syria in 1999.
Also Sunday, the leader of the main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, called on aid and medical supplies to be allowed into blockaded parts of the embattled country, particularly where contagious diseases were spreading. He said it would serve as a confidence-building measure between Syria's warring parties.
Ahmad Jarba was speaking from Cairo, where Arab foreign ministers met to discuss the Syrian crisis and a proposed peace conference expected to take place later this month in Geneva.
After their meeting, the Arab foreign ministers said in a statement they welcomed efforts by U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to find a solution to the conflict in Syria.
The statement also said the ministers stood by the Syrian National Coalition and its demands regarding necessary guarantees by the international community to ensure the success of a negotiated political solution in Syria.
It stressed that any solution to the conflict in Syria should include the formation of a transitional body that would have all executive powers, including control over the country's armed forces and security services.
The statement, however, did not mention Syrian President Bashar Assad. The coalition is demanding Assad to step down in any transitional Syrian government as a condition to attending the conference.
The Syrian opposition is made up of different factions, many of them politicians based in exile the majority of whom are part of the coalition, the main umbrella group.
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With additional reporting by Tony G. Gabriel in Cairo.
