Weather cited in at least 10 Syrians’ deaths

BEIRUT — A military offensive on an opposition-controlled region of northwestern Syria has created one of the worst catastrophes for civilians in the country’s long-running war, sending hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, many of them sleeping in open fields and under trees in freezing temperatures.

The military campaign in Idlib province and the nearby Aleppo countryside has also killed hundreds of civilians, and a bitter winter has compounded the pain.

The weather has contributed to at least 10 deaths, including four who suffered hypothermia, a family of four who died of suffocation in their tent and two who burned to death when their tent caught fire, according to Mohammed Hallaj, a coordinator for the area’s Response Coordination Group.

Nizar Hamadi, 43, lost his brother and three other family members, including a 3-year old.

Their family had been displaced multiple times to escape the swift government offensive, ending up in a settlement made up of rudimentary tents stitched together with sticks and cloth.

“It was God’s destiny that it was really cold. The temperatures was no less then -8 or -9 and this is rare in Syria,” he said, speaking to The Associated Press from the Idlib town of Binnish.

He said his brother, Steif Abdel-razak Hamadi, had moved north, as Binnish also came under attack, to set up his family’s next shelter in Killi. On Tuesday, he set up a coal heater and by nightfall, as the fire died down, he moved it inside the tent and went to sleep with his family including his wife, two children and his grandchild.

“For the whole night, the heater was sucking out all the oxygen in the tent,” Hamadi said.

When the son sleeping in another tent woke up and came to their tent, he found them all dead.