More than 5,800 people have now been confirmed dead in Syria following the deadly earthquakes that rocked southern Türkiye last Monday.

The death toll in opposition-held northwest Syria has crossed 4,400, according to the U.N. relief agency, OCHA.

In the meanwhile, at least 1,414 people have died in areas controlled by the Bashar Assad regime, according to health officials.

The actual number of casualties, however, could be far greater as the country remains divided among factions due to the decadelong civil war, and many bodies were reportedly buried immediately after the rescue, without any registration.

Life was not any easier for the survivors either as politics weighed on efforts to rush in aid with many still waiting for tents to sleep outside in freezing weather.

Efforts to help survivors and count the dead and injured in Syria were marred by the continued divisions.

On Tuesday, the United Nations announced a deal with Damascus to deliver U.N. aid through two more border crossings from Türkiye to rebel-held areas of northwest Syria, which was likely to help in the short term.

Until now, the U.N. has only been allowed to deliver aid to the Idlib area through a single crossing at Bab Al-Hawa, and the world body has been under intense pressure to get more aid and heavy equipment into northwest Syria.

'Political gain'

However, the decision was denounced by the head of the Syrian opposition-run rescue group, saying it gave Assad "free political gain."

"This is shocking and we are at loss at how the U.N. is behaving," Raed al Saleh, head of the rescue group known as the White Helmets, told Reuters.

A U.N. spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on the complaint.

The White Helmets are famous for rescuing people trapped in bombed buildings during Syria's more than 10-year civil war.

In the meanwhile, large deliveries of aid from Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also begun arriving in the opposition-held enclave ahead of U.N. deliveries, Saleh said.

"They will make a big difference because they are entering directly," he said.

Russia bristled about the deal, with its Foreign Ministry denouncing an alleged Western push to get aid "exclusively" to areas not controlled by the Syrian government.

"We are on day nine and we are still hearing the question of when will aid get in. We heard yesterday that two crossings may be opened," Mahmoud Haffar, head of local council in Jenderis, one of the worst-hit communities in northwestern Syria, told AP.

"We hope there is more international interaction and that international aid comes to alleviate the crisis."

"But so far no aid has come," he said.

Saudi aid reaches Aleppo

Also Tuesday, a first Saudi aid plane, carrying 35 tons of food, landed in government-held Aleppo Tuesday, according to Syrian state media.

The wealthy Gulf kingdom has raised some $50 million to help Türkiye and Syria. Saudi planes have previously landed in Türkiye, and Saudi trucks delivered some aid into impoverished rebel-held northwestern Syria.

Several other Arab countries have sent planes loaded with aid to government-held Syria, including Jordan and Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Algeria, Iraq, Oman, Tunisia, Sudan and Libya have also delivered aid to Damascus.

U.N. team in NW Syria

The first U.N. delegation to visit rebel-held northwestern Syria since last week's earthquake crossed over from Türkiye Tuesday, an AFP correspondent reported, as anger simmered at the world body's slow response.

"A multi-agency mission has gone this morning from the Türkiye side across the border crossing ... It's largely an assessment mission," the World Food Programme's Syria director, Kenn Crossley, told AFP in Geneva.