An explosion has killed several people awaiting evacuation from the government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya. The blast came as evacuation efforts stalled throughout the night.
A suspected car bomb tore through a crowd of people at a transit point for Syrians waiting to be transferred out of the two government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya. Early estimates put the death toll at between 12 and 16, while pro-Damascus media reported at least 22 killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which is based in the UK but has a number of sources on the ground, reported the explosion occurred at Rashidin, located west of Aleppo. Several buses were reportedly waiting to take thousands of people, mainly Shiite residents, away from the besieged areas as part of an evacuation deal.
Pro-government media outlets and pro-opposition activists corroborated the event. A Syrian military media unit run by Hezbollah said that it was a suicide attacker who had detonated the car bomb.
Syrian state TV said an unknown number of people had been killed and wounded.
Controversial deals
Syrian state media showed images of plumes of smoke, charred busses and dead bodies on the ground after the explosion. It is assumed that the casualties were mainly local Shiite residents hoping to leave government-controlled areas on the evacuation bus scheme, which in return would see hundreds of Sunni insurgents moved out of government-besieged areas near Damascus.
A delay in the execution of the agreement left nearly all of the evacuees on both sides stuck at the two transit points overnight before the blast occurred.
The agreement is one of a number of deals signed in recent months that has led to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gaining control of many previously besieged areas again. Opposition groups in Syria say, however, that the evacuation deals have resulted in the forced displacement of Assad's opponents in the west of the country.
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