What was life really like in east Aleppo?
Syrian journalist Zouhir Al Shimale, a regular contributor to The National, not only reported on the sufferings of his fellow Syrians during months of siege and unrelenting bombardment, he experienced them first hand.
Like the subjects of his reports, he too was trapped in eastern Aleppo with no escape from the constant threat of violence and death.
He remained in his city – or what was left of it – until the bitter end, when the rebels capitulated and the Syrian army and its Russian allies finally allowed civilains and combatants to leave.
As defeat loomed for rebel fighters in east Aleppo and their supporters, he sent a moving dispatch from the front line.
Syrian president Bashar Al Assad congratulated his country on the “liberation” of Aleppo, calling it “history in the making”.
“At the decision of Russia’s commander-in-chief, president Vladimir Putin, the evacuation of 5,000 militants and their families from eastern Aleppo began on Thursday,” said Gen Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, according to Moscow’s state-run Tass agency.
However, other estimates of the number of civilians remaining in rebel areas of eastern Aleppo, including by the United Nations, run in the tens of thousands.
The UAE yesterday called for civilians willing to leave the city to be allowed to do so freely and without any threat.
Influential parties in the conflict should do more to protect civilians and to stop indiscriminate bombardment so that humanitarian and medical aid could be delivered to the city, the UAE said in a statement read out by Juma Al Jenaibi, permanent representative at the Arab League and Ambassador to Egypt, at an emergency meeting held at the request of Qatar to discuss developments in Aleppo. UN Syrian humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said yesterday that Moscow had promised the evacuation of eastern Aleppo would be swift. He said that as many 30,000 civilians may be left in the rebel enclave. The UN said wounded and sick residents would be given priority in the evacuation, then civilians and ultimately fighters.
For the evacuation to be successful, the ceasefire in Aleppo would have to hold for the time it takes to move thousands of people out of the city – still a difficult task on a front line where truces often last just hours on the rare occasions they are agreed. Any flareup of fighting around Aleppo – or against the two Shiite villages in Idlib – could derail evacuations.
Videos and pictures posted to social media sites in recent days showed residents of the rebel neighbourhoods burning belongings – and even their homes – so they could not be used by pro-government forces.
Others painted graffiti on walls vowing to return. The withdrawal from Aleppo signifies the rebels’ surrender of the city after four years, with the past three months spent under siege. It is the single most important victory the Syrian government and its allies have achieved in the nearly six-year-long conflict and a devastating blow that could make the war unwinnable for the rebels.
But the end of the war appears as far away as ever. Already, pro-government forces are planning to push their offensive after they regain control of Aleppo. Mr Al Assad said government forces would turn their attention to clearing rebels from areas around the city. “Liberating Aleppo doesn’t end with liberating the city itself, it needs to be secured on the outside,” he said.