Hope Fading as Deaths in Türkiye, Syria Quake Pass 11,000

Emergency workers and medics rescue a woman out of the debris of a collapsed building in Elbistan, Kahramanmaras, in southern Türkiye, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)
Emergency workers and medics rescue a woman out of the debris of a collapsed building in Elbistan, Kahramanmaras, in southern Türkiye, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)
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Hope Fading as Deaths in Türkiye, Syria Quake Pass 11,000

Emergency workers and medics rescue a woman out of the debris of a collapsed building in Elbistan, Kahramanmaras, in southern Türkiye, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)
Emergency workers and medics rescue a woman out of the debris of a collapsed building in Elbistan, Kahramanmaras, in southern Türkiye, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)

With hope of finding survivors fading, stretched rescue teams in Türkiye and Syria searched Wednesday for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by the world’s deadliest quake in more than a decade. The confirmed death toll passed 11,000.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the especially hard-hit Hatay province, where more than 3,300 people died and entire neighborhoods were destroyed. Residents there have criticized the government's response, saying rescuers were slow to arrive.

Erdogan, who faces a tough battle for reelection in May, acknowledged "shortcomings" in the response to Monday's 7.8 magnitude quake but said the winter weather had been a factor. The earthquake destroyed the runway in Hatay's airport, further disrupting the response.

"It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster," Erdogan said. "We will not leave any of our citizens uncared for." He also hit back at critics, saying "dishonorable people" were spreading "lies and slander" about the government's response.

Search teams from more than two dozen countries have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel in Syria and Türkiye. But the scale of destruction from the earthquake and its powerful aftershocks was so immense and spread over such a wide area — including a region isolated by Syria’s ongoing war — that many people were still awaiting help.

Experts said the survival window for those trapped under the rubble or otherwise unable to obtain basic necessities was closing rapidly. At the same time, they said it was too soon to abandon hope for more rescues.

"The first 72 hours are considered to be critical," said Steven Godby, a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University in England. "The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74%, after 72 hours it is 22% and by the fifth day it is 6%."

Rescuers at times used excavators or picked gingerly through debris. With thousands of buildings toppled, it was not clear how many people might still be caught in the rubble.

In the Turkish city of Malatya, bodies were placed side by side on the ground, covered in blankets, while rescuers waited for vehicles to pick them up, according to former journalist Ozel Pikal, who said he saw eight bodies pulled from the ruins of a building.

Pikal, who took part in the rescue efforts, said he thinks at least some of the victims froze to death as temperatures dipped to minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 Fahrenheit).

"As of today, there is no hope left in Malatya," Pikal said by telephone. "No one is coming out alive from the rubble."

Road closures and damage in the region made it hard to access all the areas that need help, he said, and there was a shortage of rescuers where he was. Meanwhile, cold weather hampered the efforts of those who were there, including volunteers.

"Our hands cannot pick up anything because of the cold," said Pikal. "Work machines are needed."

Unidentified bodies were to be buried within five days after being photographed and undergoing DNA tests and finger printing, Türkiye’s disaster management agency said. Islamic funeral rites prescribe quick burial.

The region was already beset by more than a decade of war in Syria. Millions have been displaced within Syria itself and millions more have sought refuge in Türkiye.

Türkiye’s president said the country’s death toll passed 9,000. The Syrian Health Ministry said the death toll in government-held areas climbed past 1,200. At least 1,400 people have died in the opposition-held northwest, according to the volunteer first responders known as the White Helmets.

That brought the overall total to 11,600. Tens of thousands more are injured.

Stories of rescues continued to provide hope that some people still trapped might be found alive. A crying newborn still connected by the umbilical cord to her deceased mother was rescued Monday in Syria. In Türkiye’s Kahramanmaras, rescuers pulled a 3-year-old boy from the rubble.

But David Alexander, a professor of emergency planning and management at University College London, said data from past earthquakes suggested the likelihood of survival was now slim, particularly for individuals who suffered serious injuries or significant blood loss.

"Statistically, today is the day when we’re going to stop finding people," he said. "That doesn’t mean we should stop searching."

Alexander cautioned that the final death toll may not be known for weeks because of the sheer amount of rubble.

The last time an earthquake killed so many people was 2015, when 8,800 died in a magnitude 7.8 quake in Nepal. A 2011 earthquake in Japan triggered a tsunami, killing nearly 20,000 people.

Many of those who survived the earthquake lost their homes and were forced to sleep in cars, government shelters or outdoors amid rain and snowfall in some areas.

"We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heating stove, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad shape," Aysan Kurt, 27, said. "We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold."

The disaster comes at a sensitive time for Erdogan, who faces an economic downturn and high inflation. Perceptions that his government mismanaged the crisis could hurt his standing.

On his tour of hard-hit areas, he said the government would distribute 10,000 Turkish lira ($532) to affected families.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Türkiye’s main opposition party, blamed the devastation on Erdogan’s two-decade rule, saying he had not prepared the country for a disaster and accusing him of misspending funds.

In Syria, aid efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the opposition-held region along the border, which is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions linked to the war.

The European Union said Wednesday that Syria had asked for humanitarian assistance to help earthquake victims. An EU representative insisted the bloc's sanctions against the Syrian government had no impact on its potential to help.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Muhannad Hadi, said Wednesday that there was still no access to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing into opposition-held Syria, the only terminal where UN aid can be delivered, because of damaged roads.

Using other crossings, or sending the aid across conflict lines from Damascus, requires "multiple levels of coordination between different parties, security, humanitarian, NGOs," he said. "It’s not a straightforward operation."

Critics have accused the Syrian government of deliberately slowing down the process because it does not recognize aid groups operating in opposition-held areas and has sought to cut off support for those areas throughout the conflict.

In opposition-held parts of northwest Syria, rescuers pulled a man, a woman and four children from the rubble in the towns of Salqeen, Harem and Jinderis, according to the White Helmets group.

Türkiye sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Türkiye in 1999.



Trump Launches Large-scale Strikes on Yemen's Houthis, at Least 24 Killed

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, at Least 24 Killed

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.