“No more hope,” says Jableh’s head of civil protection. A heavy silence has fallen over this quake-devastated city in northwestern Syria, where rescue workers have been fighting for survivors for almost a week.
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Several hours have passed since the last rescue, when two people were pulled from the rubble by inadequately equipped rescue workers.
“Despite everything, we stop at every step and call out: Is anyone still alive?” Alaa Mubarak continues, while a sniffer dog sniffs around a destroyed building.
The dog roamed the area for half an hour. Then he trots off again without barking: There are no more survivors.
Like this Saturday, this scene plays out almost every day in Jableh, where hope of saving lives is fading.
Of the 52 occupants of that five-story building, only 14 made it out alive.
Among them, a woman and her young son were pulled from the rubble on Friday before a cheering crowd hoping to see other survivors. The woman died while being transported to the hospital.
The Mediterranean coastal city of Jableh is in Latakia province, a regime stronghold hit hard by the February 6 earthquake in Turkey and Syria. The earthquake killed more than 28,000 people, including more than 3,500 in Syria, mostly in the north.
According to the authorities, at least 638 people were killed in the province of Latakia alone.
“Handwork”
The sniffer dog was brought in by a team of 42 rescuers who arrived from the United Arab Emirates on Friday and were equipped with advanced search cameras, sensors and fuel tanks.
The Syrian, Lebanese and Iranian teams have to be content with mocking means, often digging with their hands or shovels.
“We haven’t received any new equipment for 12 years, 90% of our inventory is out of service,” says Mr. Mubarak. “If we had that kind of equipment, we would have saved hundreds of lives, if not more.”
Syria, devastated by 12 years of civil war, lacks basic resources, let alone search and rescue equipment.
Latakia province, which has been spared hostilities because of its loyalty to the Damascus government, is no exception.
Fuel shortages and chronic power outages force international rescue teams to work with their own equipment.
At the foot of another destroyed building about 500 meters away, a Defense Department engineer also testified, without giving his name because he is not authorized to speak to the media: “Our work is mainly manual work”.
“Completely Buried”
In the densely populated neighborhoods of Jableh, hundreds of onlookers crowd around the rescue workers to get information about those still missing.
Some watch from window sills and seem so close to the ruins that they could reach out and pick up the debris.
Sniffer dogs often run in their direction, identifying them as the closest living humans.
On the sidewalk, Mohammad al-Hamadi watches as rescue workers dig into his former home, which has now crumbled to bits of concrete.
The 23-year-old young man, who injured his right leg in the earthquake, is the sole survivor of his family.
His parents and brother were killed. “The building collapsed over our heads. I was completely buried,” he says, adding that only his finger got through the pieces of concrete. “They had to grab my finger to lift me up.”
Nearby, Colonel Hamad al-Kaabi, the head of the Emirati rescue team, says the chances of finding survivors have become so slim that emergency teams have been allowed to use excavators and heavy machinery to clear the rubble.
“Most of the survivors have already been taken away,” he explains, hoping despite everything. “There is still a chance of finding survivors.”