Thousands of Syrians were stuck in and around Aleppo on Saturday as a deal to evacuate two Shi'ite villages in return for Sunni opposition fighters and their families being allowed to leave two besieged towns near Damascus stalled, a monitor and activists said.
Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters and civilians who had left Madaya near Damascus on Friday sat outside rows of coaches in regime-held Aleppo city, waiting to move onto their final destination of opposition-held Idlib, pictures sent by a pro-opposition activist showed.
Meanwhile residents and pro-regime militias who had left the two opposition-besieged Shi'ite villages in Idlib province waited still in opposition-controlled territory on Aleppo's outskirts to cross into the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The British-based Observatory said the delay was because opposition fighters from another town included in the deal, Zabadani near Damascus, had not yet been granted safe passage out.
