Over 100 killed during Syria’s troubled population transfer
A stalled population transfer resumed on Sunday after a deadly explosion killed at least 100, including children, government supporters and opposition fighters, at an evacuation point, adding new urgency to the widely criticised operation.
The blast ripped through a bus depot in the alRashideen area where thousands of government loyalists evacuated the day before waited restlessly for hours, as opposition fighters guarded the area while negotiators bickered over the completion of the transfer deal. Only meters away, hundreds of evacuees from pro-rebels areas also 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 scenes were the last in the unyielding bloodshed Syrians are living through. Earlier this month, at least 89 people were killed in a chemical attack as children foaming at the mouth and adults gasping for last breath were also caught on camera. The bloody mayhem
that followed the Saturday attack only deepened the resentment of the transfer criticized as population engineering. It also reflected the chaos surrounding negotiations between the warring parties.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack but progovernment media and the opposition exchanged accusations, each pointing to foreign interference or conspiracies undermining the deal. State TV al-Ikhbariya said the attack was the result of a car bomb carrying food aid to be delivered to the evacuees in the rebelheld area ostensibly crisps for the children and accused rebel groups of carrying it out. A TV broadcaster from the area said: “There can be no life with the terrorist group”
A rebel spokesman said the car with the bomb had been parked in the area and abandoned. Another spokesman for one of the rebel groups that negotiated the deal said it is scarcely believable that the rebels would target their own fighters in such an attack. Yasser Abdelatif, a media official for Ahrar al-Sham, said about 30 rebel gunmen were killed in the blast. He accused the government or extremist rebel groups of orchestrating the attack to discredit the opposition. The Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo province, also known as the White Helmets, said their volunteers pulled at least 100 bodies from the site of the explosion. Hours after the explosion, the transfer resumed as dozens of buses, starting with the wounded, left to their respective destinations. Before midnight Saturday, 100 of some 120 buses from both sides had already arrived. The coordinated evacuations delivered warweary fighters and residents from two years of siege and hunger, but moved The two towns rebelled against Damascus’ authority in 2011 when demonstrations swept through the country demanding the end of President Bashar Assad’s rule.