Syrian bombing

Death of 100 people leaving besieged regime towns threatens to unravel deal to exchange civilians

AROUND 100 people were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber struck a convoy of buses carrying civilians out of two Syrian towns where they had been besieged for more than two years.

Residents of Fuaa and Kafrya had been surrounded by rebel forces since March 2015 and were finally being evacuated to regime-controlled areas under a deal reached between the Syrian government and opposition.

But as they were leaving rebel-held territory a van supposedly carrying medical supplies pulled level with their buses and exploded, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Footage from the scene showed bodies piled on the side of the road next to the burnt-out vehicles. Their suitcases and belongings could still be seen inside the buses that were meant to carry them to safety.

The White Helmets rescue group said they had recovered at least 100 bodies. Many children were among the dead.

Syrian state television blamed the opposition, pointing out that the civilians of Fuaa and Kafrya had remained loyal to the regime during the siege and that rebel groups use suicide bombers.

Opposition activists countered that the regime itself might have carried out the attack on its own civilians to deflect attention from the chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun last week. Rebel officials said around 30 of their fighters were killed in the blast.

The bombing took place at Rashideen, a rebel area near its former bastion Aleppo, a city taken by the regime last December. The massive blast appeared to have destroyed at least four buses and several nearby cars.

The attack threatened to unravel the delicate deal struck between the warring sides to evacuate 30,000 people from four towns under siege for years.

Under the terms of the deal, people from the regime-controlled towns of Fuaa and Kafrya would be evacuated at the same time as residents in the rebelheld towns of Madaya and Zabadani.

Residents from Madaya, which has been wracked by starvation during the siege, said they feared regime forces might carry out attacks against them in retribution. “We’re worried about the reaction of the regime army,” Dr Mohammad Darwish told The Sunday

Telegraph from a bus where he and others were waiting in a regime area. “We’re asking all humanitarian organisations to protect us.”

He said their buses appeared to be moving towards rebel-held areas but the situation remained confused. Monitors said the evacuations seemed to be continuing despite the attack.

The evacuations had stalled recently with thousands of civilians left to sleep on buses parked in an Aleppo depot.