A foreign-based Syrian observatory group says bitterly cold temperatures coupled with a week-long storm have claimed the lives of three small girls and an elderly man in crisis-stricken Syria.
“A girl less than two days old passed away (Sunday) in the southern Aleppo district of Firdous because of the extreme cold,” the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said on Sunday.
He added, “An elderly man from the Maghayir district of Aleppo died as a result of the poor weather and because he had no heating.”
Rahman further noted that extreme cold caused the death of a one-year-old girl in the southern al-Hajar al-Aswad district of Damascus on Saturday night, while a girl died in the town of Deir al-Asafir, situated 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) east of Damascus.
The deaths come a day after at least four Syrian refugees, including two children, succumbed to a severe cold spell in neighboring Lebanon.
Freezing temperatures across Lebanon, especially in the Bekaa Valley, where a large number of refugees reside, are putting many of them at risk.
In the Syrian refugee camp in the town of Rmeileh, located in southern Lebanon, harsh winds and very cold temperatures have caused serious problems for many refugees.