{"id":311065,"date":"2017-04-16T14:22:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T14:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=311065"},"modified":"2017-04-16T14:22:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T14:22:00","slug":"syria-war-at-least-68-children-among-126-killed-in-bus-bombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=311065","title":{"rendered":"Syria war: ‘At least 68 children among 126 killed’ in bus bombing"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least 68 children were among 126 people killed in Saturday’s bomb attack on buses carrying evacuees from besieged Syrian towns, activists say.<\/p>\n

A vehicle filled with explosives hit the convoy near Aleppo.<\/p>\n

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 109 evacuees from government-held towns were killed, along with aid workers and rebel soldiers.<\/p>\n

Many more were injured in the attack, the group said.<\/p>\n

The explosion shattered buses and set cars on fire, leaving a trail of bodies, as the convoy waited in rebel territory near Aleppo.<\/p>\n

In his Easter Sunday address, Pope Francis called the bombing a “vile attack on fleeing refugees”.<\/p>\n

“May [God] sustain the efforts of those who are actively working to bring comfort and relief to the civilian population in beloved Syria, who are greatly suffering from a war that does not cease to sow horror and death,” he said.<\/p>\n

The bomb went off at Rashidin, west of government-held Aleppo, at about 15:30 local time (12:30 GMT) at the checkpoint where the handover of evacuees was due to take place.<\/p>\n

It happened when a vehicle loaded with food arrived and started distributing crisps, attracting many children, before exploding, the BBC’s Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab said.<\/p>\n

She said it was not clear how the vehicle could have reached the area without government permission.<\/p>\n

But there is also no evidence that rebels were involved in the attack, as the government claims.<\/p>\n

It would not be in the rebels’ interest, our correspondent says, as they were waiting for their own supporters to be evacuated from the other towns.<\/p>\n

The planned evacuation was part of the so-called “four towns” deal, where civilians in towns under siege by both sides would be allowed to leave.<\/p>\n

It applies to government-controlled Foah and Kefraya, where the bomb struck, as well as rebel-held Madaya and Zabadani near Damascus.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/span><\/figure>\n

There were fears of revenge attacks on evacuees from rebel-held towns, being moved under a deal.<\/p>\n

But the exchange later resumed, with coaches reaching safety on both sides. Evacuations were due to continue on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Rebels had earlier accused the government of breaching the terms of the deal, accusing it of trying to bring out more loyalist fighters than agreed, along with civilians.<\/p>\n

Foah and Kefraya, most of whose residents are Shia Muslims, have been encircled by rebels and al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim jihadists since March 2015.<\/p>\n

Madaya and Zabadani, which are predominantly Sunni Muslim, have been besieged since June 2015 by the Syrian army and fighters from Lebanon’s Shia Muslim Hezbollah movement.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n

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At least 68 children were among 126 people killed in Saturday’s bomb attack on buses carrying evacuees from besieged Syrian towns, activists say. A vehicle filled with explosives hit the convoy near Aleppo. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 109 evacuees from government-held towns were killed, along with aid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[5950],"class_list":["post-311065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-syria-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=311065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=311065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=311065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=311065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}