Dozens of children dead in Syria evacuees bombing

Nearly 70 children were among those killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday.

Saturday's blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

The death toll from the bomb attack has reached at least 126, making it the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.

The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria's regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus that are surrounded by pro-government forces. More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday.

The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which pro-Damascus media said was carried out by a suicide car bomber.

The Syrian government blamed "terrorists," a catch-all term for its opponents, but key Ahrar al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement.