SO LONG, ALEPPO
Mass evacuations amid cease-fire
Thousands of war-weary civilians were evacuated from the last rebel bastion in Aleppo on Thursday, the first to leave under a cease-fire that could end years of fighting for the city and mark a major victory for Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad.
A first convoy of ambulances and buses with nearly 1,000 people aboard drove out of the rebelheld area of Aleppo, which was besieged and bombarded for months by Syrian-and Russian forces, a Reuters reporter on the scene said.
Syrian state television reported later that two more convoys of 15 buses each had also left east Aleppo, with the second reaching the rebel-held area of al-Rashideen, an insurgent told the news service.
The Red Cross said later Thursday that more than 3,000 civilians and more than 40 wounded people, many of them children, had already been evacuated.
Meanwhile, four Syrian organizations said Russia bears "a high likelihood" of responsibility for 304 attacks in Aleppo that violated international humanitarian law and could constitute war crimes.
In a letter to the UN, the groups said the attacks resulted in 1,207 civilian deaths, including 380 children.
"Evidence clearly indicates that Russia has committed or been complicit in war crimes in Syria," it said.
Women cried out in celebration as the first buses passed through a government-held area, and some waved the Syrian flag.
An elderly woman, who had gathered with others in a government area to watch the convoy removing the rebels, raised her hands to the sky. “God save us from this crisis, and from the [militants]. They brought us only destruction,” she cried.
Wissam Zarqa, a teacher in the rebel zone, said most people were happy to be leaving. But, he said, “Some of them are angry they are leaving their city. I saw some of f them crying.”
Earlier, ambulances trying to evacuate people came under fire from fighters loyal to the Syrian regime, injuring three people, a rescue-service spokesman said.
The once-flourishing city, with its renowned, ancient sites, was brutally pulverized during the war, which killed more than 300,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis and allowed the rapid rise of ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. With Post Wires