Explosion Hits Buses Carrying Evacuating Syrian Families

Syrian TV says at least 39 people were killed Saturday in an explosion that hit near buses carrying people evacuated from a besieged area of government loyalists. A war monitor puts the death toll at 24 in the area controlled by opposition fighters, the AP reports. The explosion Saturday was caused by a car bomb, according to Syrian TV and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, causing massive destruction.

In footage aired on Syrian TV, bodies were strewn outside buses, including fighters. Some buses were charred and other gutted from the explosion as belongings hanged out of windows. The explosion hit an area where buses were carrying nearly 5,000 people from Foua and Kfraya, villages in northern Syria that have been besieged by rebels. They were evacuated Friday, along with more than 2,000 from Madaya, a town outside of Damascus which was besieged by government forces. (More Syria stories.)