Deadly clashes hit Aleppo again as evacuation falters
surrounded the rebels, leaving them clinging to a tiny pinprick of territory without functioning rescue or medical operations. Hundreds of civilians have been killed, many buried in shallow, mass graves.
There was no immediate official explanation for the delay from the government, or from the deal’s sponsors. Rebel officials blamed Iran, a key backer of Assad, saying it had tried to introduce last minute changes to the deal struck by Russia.
Rebels and a source close to the regime told AFP that the evacuation had been suspended after objections from the Syrian government.
The source said that Damascus had objected to the number of people leaving, claiming rebels had sought to raise it from 2,000 to 10,000.
But Yasser al-Youssef, a political official from the Nureddin al-Zinki rebel group, said the regime and its ally Iran were trying to add “new conditions” to the agreement.
“They want to link this deal to other issues, including the areas of Fuaa and Kafraya,” he added, referring to two governmentheld Shiite-majority villages in northwestern Syria that are under rebel siege.
Turkey too accused Assad’s regime and its supporters of blocking the deal.
As news of the delay broke, France insisted the UN’s involvement was crucial to ensuring an orderly process.
The United Nations confirmed yesterday it was “not involved”, but it was ready to help.
With the tide of Syria’s war turned firmly in Assad’s favour, pockets of resistance across the country have been forced – often through starvation sieges – into surrender deals that culminate in local fighters boarding green buses and heading to the northern province of Idlib.
The evacuation of Aleppo’s rebel-held east would be the largest of its kind, and the biggest victory to date for Assad in a conflict that has smashed much of the country and left hundreds of thousands of people dead.
When rebel forces rode into Aleppo’s eastern districts in 2012, they hoped to take the whole city – Syria’s second, and a key economic hub – and turn it into a seat of power to rival the capital, Damascus. It s loss leaves the rebels without a single st rateg ica l ly sig nif ica nt area of the country and no real bargaining chip to try to force the government into a negotiated settlement.
In east Aleppo, tens of thou- sands of residents have been holding out amid a blistering bombardment and a total siege. On Tuesday night, residents had greeted the news of a final evacuation with relief, exhaustion, and grief. Many had braved a heavy storm to sleep in the street after fleeing from other areas and having nowhere to stay.
The crisis has cont inued amid a political deadlock at the United Security Council, with successive resolutions to end the violence vetoed by Russia and China.
In a statement on Tuesday, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, said events in Aleppo confront the world with “the cold logic of mass graves.”
“The name Aleppo will echo through history, like Srebrenica and Rwanda, as a testament to our moral failure and everlasting shame,” they said.