BEIRUT: A
suicide car bombing killed at least 24 people Saturday in an attack near buses
for Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns, a monitor said.
The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said the attack in Rashidin, west of Aleppo,
targeted residents evacuated from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya under
a deal reached between the regime and rebels.
An AFP
reporter in Rashidin saw several bodies, body parts and blood scattered on the
ground.
"The
suicide bomber was driving a van supposedly carrying aid supplies and detonated
near the buses," the Observatory said.
It warned that
the death toll was likely to rise given the "several dozens wounded"
at the blast site.
State
television said the car bombing had been carried out by "terrorist
groups", a term the regime applies to all armed opposition groups.
It was not
immediately clear if rebels at the transit point were among the dead.
The attack
took place as thousands of evacuees from the besieged government-held towns of
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.
They were
headed for regime or rebel-held areas via government-held second city Aleppo.
Thousands of
evacuees from Fuaa and Kafraya were stuck on the road in Rashidin when the bomb
went off.
The
evacuation, brokered by Iran and Qatar, is set to see more than 30,000 people
evacuated in two stages.
The deal had
stipulated that in the first stage 8,000 people, including 2,000 loyalist
fighters, leave the two towns but in the event just 5,000, including 1,300
fighters left, the Britain-based Observatory said.
Evacuees were
left stranded as differences emerged over the number of loyalist fighters
leaving, a rebel source said, refusing to elaborate as "negotiations are
under way."
Thousands of
evacuees from Madaya and Zabadani were also stuck in government-controlled
Ramusa, south of Aleppo.
The deal to
evacuate the towns was the latest in a string of such agreements, touted by the
government as the best way to end the fighting. Rebels say they have been
forced out by siege and bombardment.
The regime has
retaken several key rebel strongholds including eastern Aleppo since a Russian
military intervention in September 2015.
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