Buses used to evacuate Syrian villages attacked, set ablaze

Several buses en route to evacuate civilians from the besieged Syrian villages of al-Foua and Kefraya have been attacked and set ablaze, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian state television says.

Activists said militants had burned at least five buses that were on their way to evacuate wounded and sick people from the Shia enclave in northern Syria.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the al-Qaida-affiliated Fatah al-Sham Front was responsible for the attack.

Some buses, as well as Red Crescent vehicles, reached the entrance to the villages in Idlib province, which are besieged by insurgents.

Forces loyal to the president, Bashar al-Assad, are demanding people be allowed to leave the two villages, most of whose residents are Shia Muslims, in exchange for allowing evacuations of rebels and civilians from east Aleppo.

Syrian state media blamed “armed terrorists”, a term it uses for rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, carried out the attack. Rebel officials said an angry crowd of people, possibly alongside pro-government forces, was responsible.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group fighting alongside Syrian forces, said fighting broke out between jihadists and rebels that supported the evacuations. 

Other buses were able to arrive in the villages, with state media also broadcasting the arrival of buses in Aleppo. 

The development came just hours after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it hoped to resume the evacuation of civilians and wounded people from east Aleppo on Sunday.

S ome 8,000 civilians, including 2,700 children, have been allowed to leave besieged rebel-held areas in the Aleppo's east, but the evacuation was halted on Friday after reports a ceasefire, negotiated by Turkey and Russia, had broken down.

The United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has put the number of people remaining in eastern Aleppo at 50,000.

Aleppo was divided between government and rebel areas in the nearly six-year-long war, but a lightning advance by the Syrian army and its allies began in mid-November following months of intense airstrikes, forcing the insurgents out of most of the rebel-held territory within a matter of weeks.

The United Nations security council is due to vote on Sunday on a French-drafted resolution aimed at ensuring that UN officials can monitor evacuations from Aleppo and the protection of civilians who remain.

The draft text also “emphasises that the evacuations of civilians must be voluntary and to final destinations of their choice, and protection must be provided to all civilians who choose or who have been forced to be evacuated and those who opt to remain in their homes”.