国际英语新闻:Hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk in Syria amid ongoing violence: UN

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Almost daily violence targeting built-up areas and health facilities in Syria continues to threaten the lives of civilians there, the United Nations said Friday.

At least 92 people have been killed in northeastern and northwestern Syria in the weeks following Oct. 9, when Turkish forces invaded Kurdish-held border areas in the northeast, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

"Civilians continue to pay a very high price in the ongoing hostilities in Syria," said OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville.

Noting that victims had come under fire from airstrikes and ground-based strikes, he added that people are increasingly being targeted by the "indiscriminate use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in populated areas, including in local markets."

The development comes as the UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen announced that the co-chairs of Syrian-owned talks to decide a foundational text for the people of the war-torn country had agreed to resume their discussions in Geneva on Nov. 25.

On Thursday, Najat Rochdi, senior humanitarian adviser to Pedersen, warned that hundreds of thousands of people in northeast Syria have been left vulnerable following the Turkish military incursion.

"Of the more than 200,000 people who fled the fighting in recent weeks, close to 100,000 people have not yet been able to return home and are dispersed across improvised camps and collective shelters," she said in a statement.

In Syria's northwest, meanwhile, medical professionals continue to be at grave risk.

Health facilities "continue to be directly hit or significantly damaged whenever there is a military escalation in Idlib," OHCHR's Colville said.