A car bomb exploded near a bus ushering civilians out of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday, killing dozens, and injuring numerous others. The Independent is reporting that the blast shocked a bus parked near the Rashidin area located on the outskirts of Aleppo, just as it was set to evacuate to a safer area. The bus was one of the dozens of buses sent to the area to save Syrian’s from the dangers that exist within the area being constantly bombarded with attacks from ISIS fighters and the Syrian military.
According to reports from Al Jazeera, the explosion tragically took place near a site where the most vulnerable people — those sick and already injured — were looking to be transferred to government-held safe havens for treatment:
“It appears that the explosion happened at the front of the convoy, which is about 70 buses long. Apparently it happened in an area where the sick and the injured were either being transferred or swapped,” Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid said, reporting from Antakya in Turkey.
“We do understand that the casualties go into the dozens… among them women and children and some of the rebel fighters that were there to secure that convoy.”
It is still unclear who carried out the bombing attack, but tensions had been heightened after an evacuation deal had been halted, leaving those in transit in danger.
(Via Al Jazeera / Reuters / The Independent)