Photo from the scene
A suicide bomber targeted a convoy of women and children evacuated from the villages of Fou’a and Kafriya in the northern Idlib countryside when they arrived at one of the entrances to the city of Aleppo on Satuday.
A suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) targeted five buses carrying civilians in the Al-Rashidin area northwest of the government-held city of Aleppo.
So far reports indicate that over 70 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed as a result of the attack. Pro-opposition sources also said that two guards of the convoy from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) were killed in the bombing.
The count of dead is expected to rise considerably, unfortunately, as most of the injuried people are in critical stance. The ‘moderate’ opposition and HTS refused to transfer the injured civilians to the government-held area. In turn, they were transferred to hospitals in HTS-controled areas in the province of Idlib.
From its side, the Syrian government stopped the buses of civilians from Zabadani and Madaya, and prevented them from leaving until the circumstances of the Aleppo attack become clear. Also the government did not allow any buses to enter from Al Rashedeen to the goverment-held areas of Aleppo city.
According to several pro-government and pro-opposition sources: the ISIS-linked group Jund al-Aqsa is behind the attack.
It is worth mentioning that HTS (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) has worked several times to protect Jund Al-Aqsa forces from attacks of the Free Syrian Army and Ahrar al-Sham. Even despite some fighters from Jund al-Aqsa have recently joined HTS, they allegedly keep contact with ISIS. This situation raises many questions.
UPD [17:19 CET]: 4 new buses have entered Al-Rashdeen to replace the destroyed by the attack. The implementation of the agreement will be continued tonight.
