<br /> <p>A huge blast on April 15 struck buses that had carried people evacuated from besieged pro-regime towns in Idlib province to an opposition-held area in west Aleppo, where an exchange between pro-regime and rebel forces was due to take place.</p><p>The government-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported</a> that dozens of civilians, including women and children, were killed and that the blast was caused by a car bomb carried out by “terrorists” in the area. These claims are unconfirmed.</p><p>Pro-opposition media also said</a> that dozens were killed. An opposition media activist, Hadi al-Abdullah</a>, reported that rescue workers were among the dead, along with fighters from the Tahrir al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham rebel groups.</p><p>The convoy had arrived from the embattled regime-held towns of Kefraya and al-Foua to the rebel-held area of Rashidin on April 14, as part of a people-swap deal between the Syrian government and rebel groups</a>, and had been stationary, with the evacuees still aboard, for a day before the explosion occurred. Hezbollah, a militant group allied with the Syrian regime, and the opposition group Tahrir al-Sham were to exchange bus convoys carrying both civilians and fighters as part of the agreement, known as the “Four Towns" deal.</p><p>The “Four Towns” deal allowed rebel fighters and their families to leave the besieged rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani in Damascus province and pro-regime fighters and their families to leave the besieged pro-regime towns of Kefraya and al-Foua in Idlib province, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.</p><br />
