100 dead as car bomb hits syrian evacuees

RASHIDIN — A suicide car bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns killed 100 people on Saturday, as US-backed fighters advanced in their push towards the Daesh’s Raqqa stronghold.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the vehicle exploded next to buses carrying residents evacuated from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya under a deal reached between the regime and rebels. The attack, in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, also wounded dozens, according to the Observatory and an AFP correspondent on the scene.

“The suicide bomber was driving a van supposedly carrying aid supplies and detonated near the buses,” the monitoring group said.

The bombing took place as thousands of evacuees from Fuaa and Kafraya waited to continue their journey to regime-controlled Aleppo, the coastal province of Latakia, or Damascus. More than 5,000 people who had lived under crippling siege for more than two years left the two towns, along with 2,200 evacuated from rebel-held Madaya and Zabadani, on Friday. It was not immediately clear if rebels were killed in the blast.

US-backed fighters reached the outskirts of a key militant-held town in northern Syria on Saturday as part of an offensive aimed at the Daesh bastion of Raqqa. —

beirut — Thousands of Syrians were stuck in and around Aleppo on Saturday as a deal to evacuate people from two villages in return for rebels and their families leaving two besieged towns near Damascus halted, a war monitor and activists said.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the delay was because rebels from Zabadani, one of the towns included in the deal, had not yet been granted safe passage out.

The agreement is one of several concluded in recent months that has seen President Bashar Al Assad’s government take back control of areas long besieged by his forces and their allies.

In the latest deal, hundreds of rebels and their families evacuated the town of Madaya near Damascus, and were taken to the government-held city of Aleppo. From there they will travel to Idlib province, an insurgent stronghold.

In return, pro-government fighters and residents from the villages of Al Foua and Kefraya, both surrounded by Idlib rebels, have left the area and reached Aleppo’s outskirts. On Saturday, those from

There’s no drinking water or food. The bus garage is small so there’s not much space to move around. We’re sad and angry about what has happened. Ahmed, A Madaya resident

Madaya sat outside rows of coaches in a bus garage in government-held Aleppo, waiting to move onto Idlib, pictures sent by a pro-opposition activist showed.

Meanwhile, residents from the villages were still waiting in insurgent territory on Aleppo’s outskirts to cross into the city, the Observatory and a witness said.

The pro-opposition activist said insurgents were saying that a smaller number of pro-government fighters had left the villages than was agreed.

A Madaya resident, speaking from the bus garage in Aleppo, said people had been waiting there since late on Friday night, and were not being allowed to leave.

“There’s no drinking water or food. The bus garage is small so there’s not much space to move around,” Ahmed, 24, said.

“We’re sad and angry about what has happened,” he said. Many people felt that they had been forced to leave, he said. “There was no other choice in the end — we were besieged inside a small area in Madaya.”

Opposition says the evacuation deals amount to forced displacement of Assad’s opponents from the main urban centres. —