UN official: Hostilities in Syria have reached the worst point in four years

BEIRUT (AP) — The head of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria says that fighting there has reached its worst point in years, with devastating consequences for civilians. “We are witnessing the largest escalation of hostilities in Syria in four years,” Paulo Pinheiro told the U.N. General Assembly. “Yet again there appears to be total disregard for civilians’ lives in what are often tit-for-tat reprisals.” Syria’s uprising-turned civil war, now in its 13th year, has killed nearly half a million people, displaced half of its prewar population of 23 million and crippled infrastructure in both government and opposition-held areas.