A man walks past a collapsed building in the town of Jbaleh in Syria's northwestern province of Latakia following an earthquake, on February 7, 2023. A massive rescue effort in Turkey and syria battled frigid weather in a race against time on February 7 to find survivors under buildings flattened by an earthquake a day earlier that killed more than 5,000 people. (Credit: AFP)
Family members pulled a newborn alive from the rubble of a home in northern Syria Tuesday. She was found still attached by umbilical cord to her mother, who died in Monday's massive quake, a relative said.
A second man runs towards the first, carrying a blanket to try to warm the newborn in the sub-zero temperatures, while a third screams for a car to take her to hospital.
The baby was taken for treatment in the nearby town of Afrin, while family members spent the next several hours recovering the bodies of her father Abdullah, mother Afraa, four siblings and an aunt.
Their bodies were laid out on the floor of an adjacent relative's home ahead of a joint funeral that was held Tuesday.
In the dimly lit room, Suwadi stared at the corpses and listed their names.
"We are displaced from [the government-held eastern city of] Deir Ezzor. Abdullah is my cousin and I am married to his sister," he said.
'Time is running out'
Across Syria, more than 1,600 people were killed, in addition to the more than 3,400 killed in Turkey, authorities said.
Rebel-held towns and cities accounted for some 800 of the dead.
Inside an incubator in the hospital in Afrin, the newborn was hooked to an intravenous drip, her body abraded, and a bandage wrapped around her left hand.
Her forehead and fingers were still blue from the biting cold as pediatrician Hani Maarouf monitored her vital signs.
"She is now stable," Maarouf said but noted that she had arrived in bad condition.
"She had several bruises and lacerations over all her body," he told AFP. "She also arrived with hypothermia because of the harsh cold. We had to warm her up and administer calcium."
Jindayris was seized by Turkey and its Syrian rebel proxies in a 2018 offensive that drove Kurdish forces from the Afrin region.
Cut off from government-held territory, the region depends heavily on aid from Turkey and lacks the expertise or manpower to mount an effective emergency response on its own.
With Turkish NGOs preoccupied with the rescue effort across the border, the search for survivors in Syrian towns like Jindayris has been delayed.
According to the White Helmets rescue group, which operates in rebel-held areas of Syria, more than 210 buildings have been flattened in those areas.
Another 520 were partially destroyed, while thousands more were damaged, it said.
"We appeal to all humanitarian organizations and international bodies to provide material support and assistance," the White Helmets said on Twitter.
"Time is running out. Hundreds still trapped under the rubble. Every second could mean saving a life."
