Aleppo evacuations resume after 24-hour delay
Aleppo: The final phase of the evacuation of rebel-held eastern districts of the Syrian city of Aleppo has restarted, after being stalled for a day. Syrian state TV broadcast pictures of buses leaving the rebel enclave and entering a government-controlled area. A UN official also told
Reuters news agency that the evacuation had resumed.
Activists said 60 buses were stuck in the rebel enclave overnight, forcing 3000 people to wait in freezing weather with little to eat or drink. Reasons for the holdup were not clear. But state media blamed rebels in neighbouring Idlib province, accusing them of preventing the simultaneous evacuation of two progovernment Shia towns there. After waiting more than a day, the first five buses in the convoy left the rebel enclave and crossed into government-held Ramousseh on Wednesday afternoon.By late in the evening, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UKbased group that monitors the civil war, was reporting that all rebel fighters had left the eastern districts. Sources as saying that 21 bus drivers had been freed after being “held by terrorists” while on their way to the towns. BBC