Dozens of trucks loaded with aid and relief materials provided by Arab tribes of the eastern regions headed towards the opposition-held northwestern areas on the seventh day of the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, leaving more than 37,000 dead, activists and local news accounts said.

The local Naher Media Network posted on Facebook photos showing dozens of trucks carrying aid to the stricken areas in northern Syria.

“Merging of Deir Ezor tribes convoys on the bridge (Karafuzat) in the countryside of Aleppo in preparation to enter northern Syria,” Naher Media said.

Several local networks said the trucks numbered 80, organized by notables from the al-Agaidat and al-Baggara clans and other tribes in eastern Syria. Its final destination was the earthquake-affected areas near the Syrian-Turkish border.

A military source from the Third Legion of the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) told Enab Baladi that five trucks crossed into opposition-held areas in northern Aleppo while the rest of the trucks were still waiting to be allowed to cross.

He added that the SNA opened the way for the convoys completely, while the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) demanded that they unload the trucks at its military checkpoint at the Umm al-Juloud crossing and transfer it to other vehicles brought from the opposition-held areas.

This convoy was preceded by a dispute about the possibility of introducing aid to Turkish-held areas from the SDF-held areas in eastern Syria, as the opposition’s Syrian Interim Government (SIG) refused to open the roads for aid coming from the same areas.

Abdurrahman Mustafa, head of the Interim Government, said previously via Twitter, “The SDF (militia) invests in the pain of the Syrians to achieve political gains in which it appears in a good appearance, as it has now replaced the booby traps it used to send to the liberated areas with fuel cars so that its areas are approved as an outlet for the liberated areas.”

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), on February 9, announced that it had sent aid to the earthquake-stricken areas in Syria, but it was rejected and prevented from entering the areas controlled by the regime and the areas controlled by the opposition.

According to the SNA source, the clan-aid convoy coming from northeastern Syria is a civil initiative organized by the region’s tribes aloof from the SDF authorities.

The Umm al-Juloud crossing connects the SDF-controlled Manbij city to Jarablus city, which is located within the areas controlled by the Turkish-backed Interim Government, north of Aleppo.

The human toll in the northwestern region has reached 2,274 and 12,400 injured people, according to the rescue group the Syria Civil Defense (The White Helmets), while 1,414 people have died and 2,349 injuries in government-held areas, according to the Syrian Health Ministry in Damascus. The overall death toll in Syria stands at 3,688.

The bodies of Syrian earthquake victims continue to be brought in from Turkey to northern Syria through the border crossings, Bab al-Hawa, al-Ra’i, and Bab al-Salama, and their number has exceeded 1,470 bodies as of this morning.

The number of deaths caused by the devastating earthquake in Turkey rose to 31.643, according to the data of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD), in an “indefinite toll.”