The bodies of 4 missing Syrian refugees were discovered in the outskirts of Aainata in Lebanon, Bachir Khodr, the Governor of Baalbek-Hermel, announced on Friday.
The Lebanese Civil Defense, security forces, and the Lebanese Army had been working together for several days in search of the 2 women and 2 children who died due to their exposure to extreme cold, Khodr said in a tweet.
“An investigation will be opened with the Lebanese person who was previously accompanying them, regarding whether or not it was a human-smuggling issue,” he stated.
The victims died while attempting to reach the border with Syria. The children were seven and eight years old.
“During the trip, the storm started and the four got out of the car that was carrying them to continue on foot, and their tracks were since lost,” a source at the Lebanese Civil Defense told AFP on Friday.
The source said that the victims had gone missing 3 days earlier and that their bodies were found about 60 km away from the Syrian border.
Since the onset of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, many Syrian nationals have attempted to cross the border between Lebanon and Syria through illegal routes.
These attempts previously caused numerous deaths due to the extreme weather conditions in these border areas.
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