Khalil al-Suwadi took in the baby about a week and a half after she had been admitted to hospital in rebel-held Jindayris, near the Turkish border.
Medical staff performed a DNA test to ensure they were indeed relatives.
“The day they told us we could have her I was overjoyed, it was indescribable,” said the uncle, who had helped rescue her.
Khalil al-Suwadi is married to a sister of the baby’s late father, who was also his cousin.
“This child is a living memory of her father, mother and siblings” who perished, he said.
One day, when baby Afraa is older, he said he would tell her the family’s story.
When he laid her on one of the mattresses strewn across the flimsy tent the family had moved into after the quake, his daughters gathered around the baby, embracing and kissing her.
The uncle said his wife gave birth a few days ago but he has devoted much of his time to take care of Afraa.
“She is now like one of my daughters.”
