Snowstorm hammers Middle East
A bruising winter storm brought severe weather to the Middle East yesterday, forcing the closure of roads and schools and blanketing already miserable Syrian refugee camps with snow.
The nearly three-year-old conflict in Syria has killed an estimated 126,000 people and displaced millions of others, including more than 2 million who have fled across the border and thousands who are living in makeshift campsites.
Footage posted online by activists showed war-battered areas of Syria shrouded in snow, and at least two small children have died from the cold, according to a spokesman for the opposition National Coalition.
In tent camps across neighboring Lebanon thousands of Syrian refugees huddled on muddy floors under plastic sheeting that provided little relief from the icy winds.
“I hate the cold,” said 13-year-old Sakr in a camp in Saadnayel, in the mountains outside Beirut, where children, many without hats or gloves, sneezed and rubbed their hands together.
“When it snows, the meltwater becomes mud inside the tents, which collapse on our heads because of the weight of snow.”
More than 800,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon since the civil war erupted nearly three years ago.
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