Syria Evacuations to Resume After Saturday Car Bomb Killed 126

While the mutual evacuations of rebels and civilians from several towns in Syria came to a halt on Saturday amid rebels complaining that the Syrian government hadn’t sent enough security to evacuate the towns near the Lebanon border, reports today are that the evacuation is going to resume soon.

The rebels froze the evacuation mid-way through escorting the Shi’ites out of a pair of towns in Idlib Province, leaving them stranded in a rebel-held part of Aleppo Province. A car bombing against the Shi’ites during the long wait killed 126 people.

Some of the buses in the rebel-held area eventually got underway, and reached the outskirts of government-held territory, though the rebels have yet to officially confirm that the evacuations are resumed, leaving open the question of how soon more evacuations will come.

While the delays were initially presented as a protest against government security being late to the Lebanon border area, reports are now presenting the current delays as “logistical.” Either way, this is likely to add to UN complaints about the population transfer being negotiated without UN approval or involvement.