"It's dead quiet," said one of 10 customs officers here, 300 kilometres (180 miles) northeast of Damascus, where the border remained open.

"Some families of different nationalities arrived three days ago" and have been accommodated at a Syrian Red Crescent refugee camp near the border, said the facility's director, Ramez Rawasse.

A UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman in Amman said Tuesday that small groups of refugees trickled into Syria and Jordan over the previous 24 hours.

Near Ruweished on Jordan's border with Iraq, many of the 228 non-Iraqi refugees at another Red Crescent camp said Wednesday they were unsure whether to return home or wait until it was safe to go back to Iraq due to the fast-moving developments.

Twenty-six more refugees arrived on Wednesday, a camp official said.

SPACE.WIRE