NGOs pledge over $260m for Syria aid

More than $260 million has been pledged in humanitarian aid for Syria during a meeting in the Qatari capital Doha on Sunday involving the UN and 25 non-governmental organisations from across the region.

Qatari state media said the total number of pledges stood at $262 million and were made by participants at the meeting which comes ahead of a two-day European Union conference on war-torn Syria later this week in Belgium.

Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Muraikhi, the UN Secretary General's Humanitarian envoy, told the Doha meeting that Syria faces a huge humanitarian crisis which requires up to $8 billion in aid for the current year.

He added that more than 13 million Syrians need humanitarian assistance, according to the Qatar News Agency.

Among the organisations at the conference was the Qatar Red Crescent, several from the Gulf Cooperation Council and charities from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

This week's Brussels conference is expected to bring together representatives from more than 70 countries and international organisations.

Upwards of 320,000 people have been killed and more than half of the country's population displaced since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011 with protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Wealthy Qatar has been one of the biggest financial backers of rebel groups fighting Assad.

The Syrian conflict began when the Baath regime, in power since 1963 and led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded with military force to peaceful protests demanding democratic reforms during the Arab Spring wave of uprisings, triggering an armed rebellion fueled by mass defections from the Syrian army.

According to independent monitors, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in the war, mostly by the regime and its powerful allies, and millions have been displaced both inside and outside of Syria.

The brutal tactics pursued mainly by the regime, which have included the use of chemical weapons, sieges, mass executions and torture against civilians have led to war crimes investigations.