In the quake-devastated town of Jandairis in northern Syria, a dazed father cradles the body of his lifeless baby, saying over and over again, "Wake up, my boy, wake up."

"Ya Allah, ya Allah (My God, my God...)" he sobs, kissing the infant's head. "They have torn my heart out."

Dozens of homes in Jandairis crumpled like a house of cards in this town on the border with Turkey when the earth began to shake at 4:17 am (0117 GMT) on Monday.

Residents used their bare hands and pickaxes to search the rubble for survivors, as that was all they had to get the job done.

Several of Syria's archaeological sites including a famed citadel in the northern city of Aleppo were damaged in a deadly pre-dawn earthquake Monday, the country's antiquities authority said.

"Parts of the Ottoman mill inside the citadel" of Aleppo have collapsed, while "sections of the northeastern defensive walls have cracked and fallen", Syria's Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums said in a statement.

A combination of factors made the powerful earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria early Monday particularly deadly, including its timing, location, relatively quiet fault line and the weak construction of the collapsed buildings, experts said.

More than 2,300 people have been killed by the 7.8-magnitude quake near Turkey's Syrian border, with the toll expected to grow as aftershocks reverberate throughout the day.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iraqi counterpart on Monday discussed unpaid bills owed to Russian oil companies because of US sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told a Baghdad news conference that he would discuss the issue during a visit to Washington on Wednesday.

"The sanctions should not be imposed on Iraq because its cooperation continues with Russian companies," Hussein told reporters.

Tulin Akkaya had just started to gather her thoughts after being woken by the biggest earthquake to strike Turkey in nearly a century when a second massive jolt sent her scrambling for safety on the street.

Buildings lay in ruins around her southeastern city of Diyarbakir -- home to many of the millions who have fled war and poverty in neighbouring Syria.

The same crescent of devastation stretched across major cities running along the two countries' border in the wake of the 7.8-magnitude pre-dawn quake.

Officials have put the combined death toll at nearly 1,800.

At a hospital in Syria, Osama Abdel Hamid was holding back tears as he recalled on Monday the powerful earthquake that toppled his home and killed his neighbours, along with hundreds of his compatriots.

"We were fast asleep when we felt a huge earthquake," Abdel Hamid told AFP at Al-Rahma hospital in the northwestern Idlib province, where he was being treated for a head injury.

The 7.8-magnitude pre-dawn quake, whose epicentre was near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, wiped out entire sections of cities in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria.

Countries around the world mobilised rapidly to send aid and rescue workers on Monday after a massive earthquake killed more than 2,600 people in Turkey and Syria.

Offers of assistance came from countries across the world. Here are some of the chief pledges of support.

- European Union -

The European Union has mobilised 10 search and rescue teams for Turkey after the stricken country requested EU assistance, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and EU crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic said.

Israel said its forces killed on Monday five alleged Palestinian gunmen in a raid in the occupied West Bank, after a days-long search for suspects in a shooting near Jericho.

Hamas Islamists confirmed its fighters were among the dead, saying in a statement the Gaza-based group was mourning members of its military wing killed "in an armed clash with the Zionist occupation".

At least 968 people were killed in Syria on Monday as buildings collapsed after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck neighbouring Turkey, state media and rescuers said.

The quake killed at least 538 people and left at least another 1,353 injured in government-controlled parts of Syria, including the provinces of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Tartus, the health ministry said.

In rebel-held parts of the northwest of the country, at least 430 people were killed and more than 1,050 were injured, the White Helmets rescue group said, warning the toll could increase.

From Jamal Hemmou's ramshackle workshop in Nablus's Old City in the occupied West Bank, classic Arabic songs blare into the surrounding cobbled streets.

The 58-year-old is the last of his kind in the city -- he runs the only shop in Nablus repairing and selling vinyl records and players.

Like much of the world, Nablus is attuned to digital music, but Hemmou told AFP working with vinyl was about preserving Palestinian "heritage".

Elderly people regularly pass by at the end of the day and, "when I turn on the record player, they start crying," he said.