Warning: This post contains some disturbing images. Consider all video links from the aftermath of the bombing to be similarly disturbing and incredibly graphic.
On Saturday, April 15th, 2017, a large bomb blast ripped through a line of parked buses in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, Syria. The buses contained thousands of civilians being forcibly evacuated from their hometowns of Foah, Kefraya, Madaya, and Zabadani. At least 100 were killed, including some 80 children. As of this writing, nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack which also killed opposition fighters who were being evacuated with the civilians.
Civilians, having been displaced from their hometowns and trapped on buses for nearly 20 hours, relax in the sun in the moments before the blast
The civilians were being evacuated and forcibly displaced to Idlib province in an agreement signed by local opposition forces, regime representatives, members of Hezbollah, and the Iranian representatives on the ground. It was just one of many agreements in recent months leading to the displacement of “undesired” persons or groups of people from areas which have been besieged and bombarded relentlessly by regime forces for months or years. However, to attribute this attack to the regime with the information currently available would be premature. So, too, would pinning the blame upon the opposition which had agreed to the swap.
The site of the bombing, with the explosion (red) and the buses (blue)
The explosion took place at around 16:10 local time (13:10 GMT) near a checkpoint on the M5 Daraa-Damascus-Aleppo highway. While no video of the explosion itself exists (or has been found), this video from moments before and during (but facing away from) the blast does exist. The video, taken from west of the blast, shows a blue flatbed truck, possibly a Hyundai Porter Super Cab, moving toward the crowd of people gathered on the highway next to the parked buses. The camera pans away, and seconds later, a massive explosion rocks the screen before the video cuts out completely.
The scene immediately pre-blast
The suspect vehicle
The suspect vehicle drives toward the crowd
The next available footage is in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, with debris still raining down. The camera approaches from the east on the north side of the divided freeway moments after the explosion. The video shows several crumpled cars just beginning to burn, and in the last moments before it cuts away, you can see the scene of the bombing. Yet another video, this one from an Al Jazeera camera crew, takes over from there. The footage, which is incredibly graphic and disturbing, comes in from the west side and shows the crumpled cars from the previous video completely engulfed in flames. Bodies are strewn all over the road, but in the midst of the carnage one can make out the frame of a car firmly pressed directly into the pavement, with debris thrown outward from it faintly indicating the frame as the center of the explosion.
Blast crater (red circle) and debris fanning outward from it
The location of the blast crater, compared to the last seen location and based on the vehicle’s trajectory, strongly suggests the blue truck, a 1999-2002 (or so) Hyundai Porter Super LWB, was the vehicle filled with explosives.
Location of the bombing on a factional map. Green = opposition territory; Red = regime territory
Considering the location of the explosion, the wide variety of victims (both Shia and Sunni civilians), the targeting of opposition fighters who were escorting the convoy, and the immediate response from both opposition and regime fighters, it can be deduced that neither of the parties to the swap was responsible for the blast. Rather, it is our suspicion that elements of the former Jabhat al-Nusra/Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (now a component of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham), or perhaps Daesh, carried out the deplorable act of violence.
A White Helmets volunteer works alongside armed opposition fighters in a display of mutual desire to save injured civilians
There are disputed claims that the driver of the blue Hyundai called children over to the vehicle with food before detonating his charges, as well as claims that members of the Syrian-Arab Red Crescent (SARC) took cover prior to the blast, as if they had been forewarned. With regards to the first claim, we can only go off eyewitness testimony, along with the testimony of one of the victims in a Turkish hospital hours after the blast. In terms of the second claim, while photos of the SARC workers taking shelter behind a wall have been uploaded, they could just as easily be the workers taking shelter from the sun in a shaded area, or perhaps standing together for a smoke break. As of yet, we have seen no evidence to corroborate the claim that the SARC had any forward knowledge of the attack.
The attack is yet another in a long line of tragedies that have marked the last six years of life in Syria. While chemical weapons attacks have recently seen a response from the American president, it remains to be seen whether the wanton levels of conventional violence will so much as draw renewed condemnation from the United Nations Security Council. In the meantime, the Syrian people will continue to suffer and innocent civilians will continue to bear the brunt of the pain.
