As Syrians were trapped beneath the rubble, a broken UN system was held hostage by the Assad regime

Ghaith Alsayed/AP

While international teams poured into Turkey to mount a furious search and rescue effort following the massive earthquake on February 6, the response on the other side of the border in Syria was catastrophically slow.

For days, Syrians remained stuck under the rubble in sub-zero temperatures waiting for help. However, the only vehicles that crossed the border from Turkey were trucks ferrying the bodies of the dead home for burial.