Turkey earthquake: Aleppo among worst-hit areas in Syria – BBC News BBC Homepage

The war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo was one of the places to bear the brunt of the deadly earthquake, which also devastated parts of southern Turkey.

More than 1,400 people have been killed so far in northern Syria as a result of the quake.

Emergency rescue teams said many buildings had been damaged or destroyed and people were trapped under the rubble.

The region is home to millions of refugees displaced by the civil war.

Control of northern Syria is divided between the government, Kurdish-led forces and other rebel groups. They remain entangled in the conflict.

Even before the earthquake, the situation in much of the region was critical, with freezing weather, crumbling infrastructure and a cholera epidemic causing misery for many who live there.

Much of Aleppo was destroyed during the civil war, which erupted in 2011 when a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad turned violent.

Although there have been efforts to rebuild the city – Syria’s pre-war commercial center – there is dilapidated infrastructure, as well as destroyed buildings, and power outages are frequent.

According to separate figures from the Syrian government and the White Helmets rescue group, which operates in rebel-held areas, more than 1,400 people have died in the region so far after the quake.

Video posted on social media and verified by the BBC showed a building in Aleppo collapsing to the ground as onlookers rushed to safety.

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9 km (11 miles) near the Turkish city of Gaziantep. Twelve hours later, a second earthquake, almost as large, struck 130 km (80 miles) to the north.

Some Aleppo residents told Reuters they had nowhere to go, either because their homes had been destroyed or because they feared further earthquakes.

A White Helmets spokesman described northwestern Syria as a “disaster zone” and said families remained trapped under the rubble.

A man from the town of Jandairis told AFP news agency that he lost 12 family members in the quake. Another said some of his relatives were trapped under the rubble.

“We hear their voices, they are still alive, but there is no way to get them out,” he said. “There is no one to rescue them. There is no machinery.”

In government-controlled areas, all emergency services in the country were made available, including the army and student volunteers. However, BBC Monitoring’s Hesham Shawish, a Middle East specialist, says that’s not enough to cope with the scale of the destruction.

The International Rescue Committee, a charity with more than 1,000 staff on the ground in opposition-held areas in Syria, said it was already dealing with the region’s first outbreak of cholera in a decade and was preparing for approaching snowstorms when the earthquake struck.

Frost and torrential rain hampered rescue efforts.

Mark Kaye, the organisation’s advocacy director for the Middle East, described the situation as a ‘crisis within a crisis within a crisis’ and said large swathes of the region were out of touch due to the damage caused. to communication networks.

The arrival of international aid may also take some time. Northwestern Syria has become one of the hardest places to reach, with only one small Turkish border crossing point available to transport resources to opposition-held areas.

Some people in remote parts of Syria have reportedly been displaced up to 20 times due to the civil war.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians and combatants have been killed in the conflict and the resulting humanitarian crisis has been compounded in recent years by an unprecedented economic downturn.

Entire neighborhoods and vital infrastructure, including hospitals, across Syria were already in ruins following the fighting that preceded the earthquake.

The government has appealed for international assistance, specifically addressing United Nations member states, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups.

However, he reportedly dismissed claims that he sought help from Israel. The two countries are still technically at war and currently have no diplomatic relations.

Dozens of other nations have pledged their help, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. The UN said it has teams on the ground assessing the situation and providing assistance.

BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may be forced to accept help from Western countries and neighbors he has often condemned for backing his enemies .

Russia, which already has a military presence in Syria due to its involvement in the civil war alongside the government, also pledged its support.