More than 3,000 people were expected to be evacuated from Foua and Kafraya, two mainly Shia towns in the northwest of the country besieged by the rebels, on Sunday as part of a larger swap with residents from two government-surrounded towns.
The attack on a convoy of civilians fleeing the besieged towns of al-Foua and Kfraya, outside Aleppo, marked a "new horror that must break the heart of anyone who has one", said Anthony Lake, UNICEF's executive director.
Maysa al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one bus with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy. All four places have been under siege for the past two years.
She said once many had gathered, there was an explosion that tore some of the children to pieces.
Al-Manar correspondent in Syria said Sunday that 80 bodies belonging to martyrs of Foua & Kefraya terrorist attack and dozens of injured arrived at Aleppo hospitals during the previous hours, adding that contacts were intensifying to continue the evacuation deal under an agreement reached throughout the last hours.
In return, the government will allow rebels and their families to leave the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani in northern Damascus to reach Idlib province. The evacuation of more than 3,000 Syrians was instantly halted.
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Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory, said 109 of the victims were from Foua and Kfarya, among them 13 women and 68 children.
He called on all parties to uphold their obligations under worldwide humanitarian and human rights law, and to "facilitate safe and unimpeded access for the United Nations and its partners to bring life-saving help to those in need".
But after the deadly bombing, the rebels apparently succumbed to the pressure of their regional backers and allowed the buses to proceed to the government-controlled Aleppo city, thus marking the implementation of the first part of the deal.
Syria's war has killed more than 320,000 people since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.
More than 3,000 Syrians are expected to be evacuated on Sunday from four areas as part of a population transfer that was briefly stalled the day before by a deadly blast that killed scores of people, majority government supporters.
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