ALEPPO SIEGE OVER
Assad in control as last rebs, refugees leave
As the last of the war-ravaged refugees and rebel fighters fled the death and destruction of Aleppo Thursday, Syrian-government troops took control of the embattled city for the first time in four years.
The army declared victory as the final four buses carrying opposition fighters and their supporters left eastern Aleppo.
Government commanders announced the “restoration of security and stability to Aleppo after liberating it from terrorism and terrorists,” the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said.
Syrian state television showed uniformed soldiers and civilians in government-controlled western Aleppo shouting “Aleppo, Aleppo” and “God, Syria and Bashar only” as celebratory gunfire crackled in the background.
President Bashar al-Assad, whose military has been battling opposition forces in Syria since 2011 and in Aleppo since 2012, said his troops’ success represents a “major step on the road to wiping out terrorism” and should bring about the end of the civil war.
For the rebels, the defeat was a crushing blow. Ahmad al-Khatib, an opposition media activist, called the fall of Aleppo an event “we’ll never forget and we’ll never forgive.”
The evacuations began last week after opposition forces agreed to surrender their last strongholds in eastern Aleppo following a ceasefire brokered by Russia, which has been supporting the Assad regime since last year with devastating airstrikes, and Turkey, which backed some of the rebels.
About 35,000 rebels and civilians fled the besieged city in an erratic evacuation slowed by deep snow, broken agreements and security concerns.
The Syria government now has control of the country’s five main cities — Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Damascus and Latakia.
Even with the exodus completed, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said that doesn’t necessarily mean the war is over, adding that the Assad government is responsible for the deaths of hun- dreds of thousands and the destruction of the ancient city.
“It wasn’t the opposition that bombed hospitals and schools and first responders as they rushed to save people. It was the regime and its backers,” he said.
The fighting created one of the largest mass migrations since World War II, with as many as 4.8 million desperate Syrians fleeing the country since the start of the war in 2011, the UN estimates.
Those who stayed behind saw their neighborhoods turned to rubble by constant bombing. Men, women and children were left to starve as the government cut off all food and water. Some counts put the death toll at more than 310,000.