In war-torn Idlib, Syrians pick up pieces alone after earthquake

A man sits atop the ruins of a home where his relatives once lived in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in the rebel-held town of Harem, in Idlib governorate, Syria, February 14, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi

After more than a decade of bombardment, dwindling international support, and a crippling economic crisis, Syria's opposition-held northwest was already barely hanging on when calamity struck.

Instead of bombs from the sky, the earth rumbled from below early on the morning of Feb. 6 – sending multi-storey cinderblock houses tumbling onto the heads of residents.