Crews began digging mass burial sites near an existing cemetery in northern Syria for the victims of powerful earthquakes that struck the region on February 6.

Footage posted by the White Helmets, a civil defense and rescue organization operating in areas of Syria outside of government control, shows grave sites being dug in the Afrin District for victims from the town of Jindires, according to details in the post.

After posting the above footage, the organization said rescue operations were becoming increasingly difficult, with “hundreds of families” still buried underneath rubble, and a “great shortage of search and rescue equipment.”

By Wednesday afternoon, the combined death toll in Turkey and Syria reached 11,959, according to Washington-based Arab news service Step News Agency. Credit: Syria Civil Defense via Storyful