Dozens Killed as Blast Strikes Convoy Carrying Evacuated Syrians<br />By BEN HUBBARD and HWAIDA SAADAPRIL 15, 2017<br />BEIRUT, Lebanon — Dozens of people were killed in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday when a car bomb struck a group of buses carrying residents<br />and fighters who had been evacuated from two besieged towns the day before.<br />About 5,000 people, including 1,300 fighters, had been bused out of Fouaa<br />and Kfarya, two Shiite villages in Idlib Province that are loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.<br />The Syrian Observatory said some buses had been allowed to move,<br />and state news media said the first buses carrying Shiites had reached government-held areas.<br />By midday Saturday, both convoys had reached the city of Aleppo,<br />and the Shiites were waiting to be allowed to enter government-held territory while the Sunnis were waiting to go to rebel-held Idlib Province.<br />More than 2,000 people, including 400 fighters, had been bused out of Madaya, a predominately<br />Sunni town near the border with Lebanon that had long been held by rebels.<br />Most of the dead were residents of two Shiite villages in Idlib Province that have been surrounded by Islamist Sunni rebels for about two years.<br />The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which opposes the government<br />and tracks the war from Britain through contacts in Syria, said at least 43 people were killed.
