Bomb attack at Syrian evacuation point kills 100

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A stalled population transfer in Syria resumed on Saturday after an explosion killed at least 100 people, including children, government supporters and opposition fighters, at an evacuation point on the outskirts of Aleppo, adding new urgency to the widely criticized operation.

The blast ripped through a bus depot in al-Rashideen, where thousands of government loyalists moved the day before waited restlessly for hours, as opposition fighters guarded the area while negotiators bickered over the completion of the transfer deal. Only metres away, hundreds of evacuees from prorebel areas loitered in a walled-off parking lot, guarded by government troops.

Footage from the scene showed bodies, including those of fighters, lying alongside buses, some of which were charred and others gutted from the blast. Personal belongings could be seen dangling out of the windows. Fires raged from a number of vehicles as rescuers struggled to put them out.

The attack only deepened the resentment of the transfer, which has been criticized as population engineering. It also reflected the chaos surrounding negotiations between the warring parties. The United Nations did not oversee the transfer deal of the villages of Foua and Kfraya, besieged by the rebels, and Madaya and Zabadani, encircled by the government.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but progovernment media and the opposition exchanged accusations, each pointing to foreign interference or conspiracies.

State TV al-Ikhbariya said the attack was the result of a car bomb carrying food aid to be delivered to evacuees in the rebel-held area and accused rebel groups of carrying it out.

Ahrar al-Sham, the rebel group that negotiated the deal, called the attack “cowardly.”