A huge car bomb has blasted a convoy of coaches carrying evacuees from government-held towns in Syria, killing at least 39 people.<\/p>\n
It shattered coaches and set cars on fire, leaving a trail of bodies including children, as the convoy waited in rebel territory near Aleppo.<\/p>\n
Russian troops have reportedly moved to shield rebel evacuees from retaliation.<\/p>\n
Thousands of evacuees from both sides of Syria’s civil war have been stuck in hostile territory since Friday.<\/p>\n
The “Four Towns” deal brokered by Iran and Qatar was meant to relieve suffering in besieged towns – Foah and Kefraya in the north-west which are under government control, and rebel-held Madaya and Zabadani near Damascus.<\/p>\n
Some 30,000 besieged people would be taken out but, according to AFP news agency, up to 5,000 government evacuees and 2,200 from rebel towns are now stranded.<\/p>\n
Last month, the UN described the situation in the besieged towns as “catastrophic”. More than 64,000 civilians are “trapped in a cycle of daily violence and deprivation”, it said.<\/p>\n
The bomb reportedly went off at Rashidin, west of Aleppo, around 15:30 local time (12:30 GMT) at the checkpoint where the handover was due to take place.<\/p>\n
Syrian state media reported 39 deaths while other sources spoke of between 43 and 60 deaths. Hundreds of people are said to have been injured.<\/p>\n
A suicide bomber driving a van supposedly carrying aid supplies blew it up near the coaches, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports.<\/p>\n
Images from the scene show bodies lying on the ground outside blackened and devastated vehicles.<\/p>\n
The complex choreography of this exchange has been attempted before on a smaller scale, reports Sebastian Usher, the BBC’s Arab affairs editor. There must now be concern over whether it can continue at all, he adds.<\/p>\n
An AFP correspondent west of Aleppo, speaking before the explosion, said the coaches carrying government evacuees had not moved in 30 hours.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A huge car bomb has blasted a convoy of coaches carrying evacuees from government-held towns in Syria, killing at least 39 people. It shattered coaches and set cars on fire, leaving a trail of bodies including children, as the convoy waited in rebel territory near Aleppo. Russian troops have reportedly moved to shield rebel evacuees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[6200,5692],"yoast_head":"\n