Schools Reopen as Syrians Live with Quake’s Devastation

Residents sit at home in a building damaged by the February 6 earthquake, in Aleppo city's al-Masharqa neighbourhood, on February 21, 2023. (AFP)
Residents sit at home in a building damaged by the February 6 earthquake, in Aleppo city's al-Masharqa neighbourhood, on February 21, 2023. (AFP)
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Schools Reopen as Syrians Live with Quake’s Devastation

Residents sit at home in a building damaged by the February 6 earthquake, in Aleppo city's al-Masharqa neighbourhood, on February 21, 2023. (AFP)
Residents sit at home in a building damaged by the February 6 earthquake, in Aleppo city's al-Masharqa neighbourhood, on February 21, 2023. (AFP)

Schools resumed classes in Syria’s opposition-held northwest Saturday after closing for nearly three weeks following an earthquake that devastated the region, local officials said, even as many schoolchildren suffer from shock.

Many schools were turned into temporary shelters following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Türkiye and neighboring parts of Syria on Feb. 6 and killed tens of thousands of people.

The quake left homeless hundreds of thousands of people in the area, many of whom had already been displaced by Syria's 12-year-long war. Because of that conflict, the opposition-held area has also struggled to receive urgently needed humanitarian aid.

Many students were absent from their classes Saturday as their homes were damaged by the quake and their families now reside far away from the schools, said Abdulkafi Al-Hamdou a citizen journalist in the region.

“Some students were worried about being inside the building and were on edge whenever they heard a sound such as a desk being moved,” Al-Hamdou said by telephone while visiting a school. “Many students are suffering from severe fear and anxiety. They are still in shock.”

An official with the education department in the region, Ziad al-Omar, said 39 teachers and 421 students were killed by the earthquake. He added that some 250 schools suffered damage including 203 that were partially destroyed and 46 that had cracks in the walls though the structures were still standing.

Over the past days, displaced people were asked to leave schools and many of them moved into shelters to live in tents. But prices of tents have been shooting up amid shortages and sell for about $200 or four times above the pre-earthquake price. A solid tent with metal stands can cost up to $400, in a region where more than 90% of the population live in poverty and rely on aid for food and medicine.

Education officials in opposition-held Idlib said the last two hours on Saturday and Sunday will be used to train students on how to evacuate buildings during earthquakes.

One of those who lost a home in the quake is Ayesha, a resident of the town of Atareb in rural Aleppo who had to evacuate her home to live in a tent. She told The Associated Press that the temporary shelter offered to her extended family of 13 people had to be evacuated because organizers said schools are about to resume and the courtyard where tents had been set up had to be vacated.

“They gave us a tent in a school. Then they said the students have to return and they started evacuating us,” she said, giving only her first name like most women in the conservative area.

Having a big family, Ayesha rented a small house on the edge of Atareb but four days after they moved there, a new 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck on Monday. “The house, thankfully didn’t collapse, but the walls have cracks," she said. “The ceiling remained in place.”

Since then, the family has set up a tent in the street out of fear of more aftershocks.

According to the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, the earthquake killed 2,274 people and injured more about 12,400 in the opposition-held region. The quake also destroyed 550 buildings and heavily damaged at least 1,570 others, according to the White Helmets.

The total death toll of the earthquake is estimated to surpass 47,000 people in Türkiye and Syria — with the vast majority of deaths in Türkiye.



Trump Launches Large-scale Strikes on Yemen's Houthis

Smoke rises from a position following airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 15 March 2025. Three airstrikes targeted a neighborhood in Sana'a, causing powerful explosions, the Houthis-run Al-Masirah TV has reported. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Smoke rises from a position following airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 15 March 2025. Three airstrikes targeted a neighborhood in Sana'a, causing powerful explosions, the Houthis-run Al-Masirah TV has reported. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Trump Launches Large-scale Strikes on Yemen's Houthis

Smoke rises from a position following airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 15 March 2025. Three airstrikes targeted a neighborhood in Sana'a, causing powerful explosions, the Houthis-run Al-Masirah TV has reported. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Smoke rises from a position following airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 15 March 2025. Three airstrikes targeted a neighborhood in Sana'a, causing powerful explosions, the Houthis-run Al-Masirah TV has reported. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

US President Donald Trump launched large-scale military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, killing at least 24 people at the start of a campaign expected to last many days.
Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis' main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. He said if Iran threatened the United States, "America will hold you fully accountable and, we won't be nice about it!"
The unfolding strikes - which one US official told Reuters might continue for weeks - represent the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January. It came as the United States ramps up sanctions pressure on Tehran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.
"To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!" Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
At least 13 civilians were killed and nine injured in US strikes on Yemen's capital Sanaa, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
At least 11 others, including four children and one woman, were killed and 14 were injured in a US strike on the northern province of Saada, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported.
The Houthis' political bureau described the attacks as a "war crime."
"Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation," it said in a statement.
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a building in a Houthi stronghold.
"The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children," one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia, told Reuters.
Another strike on a power station in the town of Dahyan in Saada led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets his visitors.
The Houthis, an armed movement that took control of most of Yemen over the past decade, have launched scores of attacks on ships off its coast since November 2023, disrupting global commerce and setting the US military on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones that have burned through stocks of US air defenses.
A Pentagon spokesperson said the Houthis have attacked US warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023. The Houthis say the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas militants.
Iran's other allies, Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have been severely weakened by Israel since the start of the Gaza conflict. Syria's Bashar al-Assad, who was closely aligned with Tehran, was overthrown by the opposition in December.
But throughout, Yemen's Houthis have remained resilient and often on the offensive, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.
The US administration of then-President Joe Biden had sought to degrade the Houthis' ability to attack vessels off its coast but limited the US actions.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say Trump has authorized a more aggressive approach.
STRIKES ACROSS YEMEN
The strikes on Saturday were carried out in part by fighter aircraft from the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea, officials said.
The US military's Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, described Saturday's strikes as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen.
"Houthi attacks on American ships & aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, is on notice," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X. "Freedom of Navigation will be restored."
Trump held out the prospect of far more devastating military action against Yemen.
"The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective," Trump wrote.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the US government had "no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy."
"End support for Israeli genocide and terrorism. Stop killing of Yemeni people," he said in an X post on early Sunday.
Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Tuesday, the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden, ending a period of relative calm starting in January with the Gaza ceasefire.
The US attacks came just days after a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei from Trump was delivered, seeking talks over Iran's nuclear program.
Khamenei on Wednesday rejected holding negotiations with the United States.
Still, Tehran is increasingly concerned that mounting public anger over economic hardships could erupt into mass protests, four Iranian officials told Reuters.
Last year, Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defenses, in retaliation for Iranian missile and drone attacks, reduced Tehran's conventional military capabilities, according to US officials.
Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is dramatically accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, the UN nuclear watchdog - the International Atomic Energy Agency - has warned.
Western states say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level under any civilian program and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
In an apparent sign of US efforts to improve ties with Russia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Saturday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to inform him about the US strikes in Yemen, the State Department said. Russia has relied on Iranian-provided weaponry in its war in Ukraine, including missiles and drones, US and Ukrainian officials say.