Car bomb kills at least 39 Syria evacuees

A suicide auto bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns killed 43 people on Saturday, as US-backed fighters advanced in their push towards the Islamic State group´s Raqa stronghold. A war monitor put the death toll at 24 in the area controlled by opposition fighters.

Pro-government media in Damascus said the blast was caused by a suicide attacker detonating a auto bomb.

Pictures on social media showed the apparent aftermath of the blast, with bodies lying on the ground and blackened buses with windows blown out. The state TV channel said the auto was carrying food aid but a rebel spokesman said the vehicle had been parked in the area and abandoned.

A bomb attack on Syrian bus convoy carrying evacuees to Aleppo has killed at least 43 people. The major blast hit a bus depot in a rebel-controlled area where residents of pro-government towns have arrived late Friday.

Ahmed Afandar, a resident evacuated from his hometown near Madaya, says dozens of buses carrying children, women and men are not allowed to proceed toward rebel-held Idlib as planned.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the delay was because opposition groups from Zabadani, one of the towns included in the deal, had not yet been granted safe passage out.

The explosion came as frustration was already mounting over the stalling evacuation process.

The government and rebels disagreed over the number of gunmen to be evacuated, leaving the buses stuck. Many were already voicing their dissatisfaction with the wait. The deals are unpopular with the Syrian opposition, who say they amount to forced displacement of Assad's opponents from Syria's main urban centres in the west of the country. "All these thousands of people are stuck in less than half a kilometer (500 yards)".

He said the deal was brokered by Iran on the government side and Turkey and Qatar on behalf of the rebels.

People waiting in the Ramousah garage heard the blast, and said they feared revenge attacks by pro-government forces.

Ramouseh and Rashidien are the places for the swap between both parties, but the rebels of the Front for Liberating the Levant, previously known as the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, prevented the buses from Kafraya and Foa from proceeding towards Aleppo.

"We are not moving forward or backward", he said.

Syrian state TV says a auto bomb has exploded near buses carrying Syrians evacuated from towns besieged by rebels in northern Syria.

Salloum Salloum, a lawmaker speaking on the pro-government al-Ikhbariya TV channel, said efforts are underway to resolve the problem, accusing the rebels of adding new conditions to the deal.