Northern Syria has endured years of war. Now, an earthquake has added to the despair

Rescue workers carry a boy they recovered from the rubbles of a building after an earthquake in Dana, a town in rebel-held Idlib, early Monday morning. (Aaref Watad/AFP via Getty Images)

Much of the destruction and death from Monday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Turkey lies across the border in northern Syria, a region already ravaged by more than a decade of civil war and the myriad crises that have flowed from it.

Syrian officials have already reported at least 656 people dead in government-held areas of the country, according to the Associated Press. In northwest Syria, a region held by rebels, aid groups operating there said at least 450 people died, with many hundreds injured, according to the AP.