Winter storm batters Mideast, flooding and accidents kill 8

Rain's picture

Newser - 1/09/13, Jamal Halaby and Barbara Surk/AP

Palestinians cross a road flooded and swept away by heavy rains in the northern West Bank village of Kabatyeh, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. A Palestinian official says the fiercest storm to hit the area in a decade has claimed the lives of two West Bank women who drowned after their...

Palestinians cross a road flooded and swept away by heavy rains in the northern West Bank village of Kabatyeh, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. A Palestinian official says the fiercest storm to hit the area in...   (Associated Press)

The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan on Wednesday, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.

In Lebanon, the Red Cross said storm-related accidents killed six people over the past two days. Several drowned after slipping into rivers from flooded roads, one person froze to death and another died after his car went off a slippery road, according to George Kettaneh, Operations Director for the Lebanese Red Cross.

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