Several buses on their way to evacuate ill and injured people from besieged Syrian have reportedly been attacked and burned.
Buses sent to evacuate rebel fighters and civilians arrive at a rebel-held checkpoint on the outskirts of the two Syrian villages under rebel siege Photo: Omar haj kadour / AFP
Some buses, as well as Red Crescent vehicles, reached the entrance to the Al Foua and Kefraya villages, in Idlib province, southwest of Aleppo, yesterday.
The villages are under siege by rebel fighters.
Coalition forces, who are fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, are demanding people be allowed to leave the villages - in exchange for allowing the evacuation of rebels and civilians from East Aleppo, which has been under heavy bombardment by Russian-backed state forces for more than a month.
The Syrian state news agency, Sana, said the buses were to pick up both rebel fighters and civilians as part of the exchange deal.
It is still unclear when the evacuation of thousands of civilians from Aleppo will start again. Efforts to resume evacuations using convoys of buses have been delayed for several days.
The Free Syrian Army, a nationalist opposition alliance, said individuals not affiliated to the army carried out the attack on the buses. Obstructing the evacuation process was a "reckless" act, which put the lives of thousands of trapped people in danger, it said in a statement.
Syrian state media, which broadcast footage of burning green buses, said "armed terrorists" - a term it uses for insurgent groups fighting against Assad's rule - attacked five buses and burned and destroyed them.
Pro-Damascus Mayadeen television said the group formerly known as the Nusra Front was behind the attack. Local residents told Reuters this was not the case.
The group had previously said it had not agreed to the evacuation of the two villages, most of whose residents are Shi'ite Muslims.
Videos broadcast on social media showed men with guns cheering and shouting "god is great" as the buses burned.
Rebel officials said an angry crowd of people, possibly alongside pro-government "operatives", carried out the attack.
- BBC / CNN