Fresh hell for Syrians after more than a decade of war

The devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake has brought more carnage to parts of Syria already facing massive destruction and great suffering during a decade of brutal civil war. Shocking images have emerged of whole villages and hamlets flattened, with reports of dozens of families buried under the rubble, adding to a death toll of hundreds of bodies that were being recovered from twisted piles of metal and concrete.

- KIM SENGUPTA

Some families in opposition-held regions have been living in homes half-destroyed during airstrikes by the forces of president Bashar al-Assad. Buildings that had been hastily erected in the years of conflict were the first to collapse as the earthquake and aftershocks tore through the country and neighbouring Turkey.

More than 4 million people are packed into the remaining opposition-held enclaves of Syria, many displaced by fighting in other parts of the country, surrounded by the Russian-backed regime forces with frequent raids by warplanes.

Virtually nothing has been left standing in the wake of the earthquake in villages like Sarmada and Besania in the northwest. There has also been extensive damage to the towns of Azaz and Salquin, both key staging posts for rebels going from Turkey into Syria to fight regime forces during the battle for Aleppo in 2012. Access from the main cities to the affected areas has been made extremely difficult by fallen bridges and road subsidence.