Aleppo evacuation starts after truce deal
Fall of city would give Assad biggest victory of war
ALEPPO (Reuters) – An operation to evacuate thousands of civilians and fighters from the last rebel bastion in Aleppo was under way on Thursday, part of a cease-fire deal that would end years of fighting for the city and mark a major victory for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the evacuation of around 200 wounded people had started. Russia, a major ally of Assad, said 5,000 Syrian rebels and family members were being brought out of eastern Aleppo.
The convoy of 10 ambulances and at least 17 buses with nearly 1,000 aboard drove from the Ramousah district next to the rebel-held area of Aleppo, which was besieged for months by Syrian government forces, a Reuters reporter on the scene said.
Syrian state television said those leaving were opposition fighters.
Rebel officials have said that civilians who wish to leave will also be able to do so as part of the cease-fire and evacuation deal.
Footage of the buses appeared to show that most of those inside were young men.
Women ululated in celebration as the buses passed through a government-held area, and some waved the Syrian flag.
Earlier, ambulances trying to evacuate people came under fire from fighters loyal to the Syrian government, who injured three people, a rescue service spokesman said.
“Thousands of people are in need of evacuation, but the first and most urgent thing is wounded, sick and children, including orphans,” said Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian adviser for Syria.
Columns of black smoke could be seen rising from the rebel-held area, where residents hoping to depart were burning personal belongings they do not want to leave for government forces to loot.
“Outside every building you see a small fire, papers, women’s clothes,” one resident told Reuters.
Russian soldiers were preparing to lead rebels out of Aleppo, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
Syria had guaranteed the safety of rebels and their families, who would be taken towards Idlib, a city in northwestern Syria which is outside government control.
Russia would use drones to monitor rebels and their families being transported in buses and ambulances along a humanitarian corridor, the ministry said.
The evacuation agreement would include the safe passage of wounded from the Shi’ite villages of Foua and Kefraya near Idlib that are besieged by rebels, according to a military media unit run by Hezbollah, a group allied to Assad. A convoy set off to evacuate the villages on Thursday, Syrian state media said.
On Wednesday, rebels attributed the hold up of the cease-fire and evacuation of the insurgent area of Aleppo to demands by Iranian-backed militias that the wounded in Foua and Kefraya should be taken to government areas.
Efforts to evacuate eastern Aleppo began earlier in the week with a truce brokered by Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally, and Turkey, which has backed the opposition.
That agreement broke down following renewed fighting on Wednesday and the evacuation did not take place then as planned.
An official from the Jabha Shamiya rebel group said a new truce came into effect at 2:30 a.m. on Thursday. Shortly before the new deal was announced, clashes raged in Aleppo.
Government forces made a new advance in Sukkari – one of a handful of districts still held by rebels – and brought half of the neighborhood under their control, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.
The Russian defense ministry said – before the report of the government forces’ advance in Sukkari – that the rebels controlled an enclave of only 2.5 sq.km.
The evacuation plan was the culmination of two weeks of rapid advances by the Syrian army and its allies that drove insurgents back into an ever-smaller pocket of the city under intense air strikes and artillery fire.
By taking control of Aleppo, Assad has proved the power of his military coalition, aided by Russia’s air force and an array of Shi’ite militias from across the region.
Rebels have been backed by the US, Turkey and Gulf states, but that support has fallen short of the assistance given to Assad by Russia and Iran.
Russia’s decision to deploy its air force to Syria more than a year ago turned the war in Assad’s favor. In addition to Aleppo, he has won back insurgent strongholds near Damascus this year.