Aleppo evacuations resume after stand-off over villages

SYRIA - Convoys of evacuees traveled from a rebel-held area of Aleppo and from two Shi’ite villages besieged by insurgents yesterday after a days-long stand-off.

Dozens of buses carrying thousands of people from Aleppo’s tiny rebel zone reached insurgent areas of countryside to the west of the city, according to a United Nations official and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. At the same time, 10 buses left the Shi’ite Muslim villages of al-Foua and Kefraya, north of Idlib, for government lines in Aleppo, the sources said. The evacuation of civilians, including wounded people, from the two villages which have been besieged by rebels for years, was a condition for the Syrian army and its allies to allow thousands of fighters and civilians trapped in Aleppo to depart. “First limited evacuations, finally, tonight from east Aleppo and Foua & Kefraya. Many thousands more are waiting to be evacuated soon,” Jan Egeland, who chairs the United Nations aid task force in Syria, tweeted late on Sunday night. Syrian state TV and pro-Damascus stations showed the first four Evacuees from rebel-held east Aleppo arrive at the town of al-Rashideen, which is held by insurgents, Syria. (Photo: REUTERS) buses arriving in Aleppo from the besieged villages, accompanied by pick-up trucks and with people sitting on their roofs. Yesterday, the Security Council voted in New York on a resolution to allow U.N. staff to monitor the evacuations. The draft resolution was the result of a compromise between Russia and France, and the United States said it was expected to pass unanimously. Last weekend, some of the buses sent to al-Foua and Kefraya to carry evacuees out were attacked and torched by armed men, who shouted “God is greatest” and brandished their weapons in front of the burning vehicles, according to a video posted online.

That incident threatened to derail the evacuations, the result of intense negotiations between Russia - the main supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - and Turkey, which backs some large rebel groups. At stake is the fate of thousands of people still stuck in the last rebel bastion in Aleppo after a series of sudden advances by the Syrian army and allied Shi’ite militias under an intense bombardment that pulverized large sections of the city. They have been waiting for the chance to leave Aleppo since the ceasefire and evacuation deal was agreed late last Tuesday, but have struggled to do so during days of hold-ups. The weather in Aleppo has been wet and very cold and there is little shelter and few services in the tiny rebel zone.

(Reuters.com)