Confusion over state of Aleppo evacuation
Syria suspends operation Russia says is complete as UN and activists claim thousands of civilians not accounted for
BEIRUT // The Syrian government suspended the evacuation of the last rebel- held districts of east Aleppo yesterday amid conflicting claims over breaches of terms and the numbers of people still trapped there. The evacuation began on Thursday afternoon after a few false starts and continued overnight. Before they were halted yesterday morning, Damascus’s chief ally, Russia, said that more than 9,500 people, including 4,500 opposition fighters, had been taken in convoys headed to rebel territory outside the city.
The convoys stopped after rebels and the Syrian government accused each other of breaking the evacuation agreement. The rebels claimed that evacuees leaving Aleppo were being stopped and detained by pro-government militias. One convoy of between 800 and 1,000 fighters and civilians was stopped at a militia checkpoint in government territory where several people were killed before the convoy was turned back, said rebels, residents, activists and journalists.
The government and its allies in turn accused rebels of violating the ceasefire, blocking evacuations from two rebel-besieged Shiite towns that were part of the deal, and trying to take prisoners and heavy weapons with them out of east Aleppo. Vehicles soon stopped ferrying civilians and fighters out of the area.
Reports said gunfire and explosions could be heard again in the city after a rare calm. Amid the resumed fighting, Russia, whose troops had been escorting the convoys out of Aleppo, said the evacuation was complete.
“The operation ... on the withdrawal of militants and their family members from eastern areas of Aleppo has been completed. All women and children staying in the quarters controlled by the militants have been evacuated,” Russia’s defence ministry said.
“The Syrian army’s operation to retake quarters of eastern Aleppo from militants has been completed. Government troops are eliminating the few remaining pockets of resistance.” The announcement raised fears for the safety of up to 40,000 civilians that the UN said were trapped in the rebel enclave before the evacuation deal. By Russia’s count, about 4,500 fighters and 5,000 civilians were taken out of the city. If UN and Syrian activists are correct, tens of thousands of civilians are unaccounted for in Russia’s tally – civilians who are now facing an imminent assault by government forces.
Despite Russia’s claim, the Syrian government seemed to regard yesterday’s events as a suspension and interruption, not a completion of the evacuation. Turkey, which hashed out the evacuation deal with Moscow, said that the operation was still under way and that civilians remained trapped.
Residents of the former rebel stronghold are desperate to leave after three months of siege and more than a month of intense bombardment that has killed hundreds of civilians.
Rebels and civilians were relieved when a deal for them to leave the city was reached on Tuesday night, only to see it scuttled by violence and additional demands before it could begin.
As they prepared to leave on Wednesday, the few remaining square kilometres of rebel territory in the city were again pounded by air and artillery strikes. On Thursday, they were again told an evacuation would take place, only to see it delayed after ambulances were fired upon as they tried to leave the rebel enclave.
The deal was finally put into action on Thursday afternoon, with mobs of people trying to get a spot on the green buses that entered their neighbourhood plastered with the portrait of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. It was one last humiliation from a man hated or at least feared by many of those left in the rebel areas, but at least they would escape Aleppo’s ruins.
Also yesterday, president Vladimir Putin and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had agreed to invite Syria’s government and rebels to peace talks in Kazakhstan. Despite consistently dismissing earlier calls for a countrywide ceasefire as only beneficial to the rebels, Russia yesterday said such a truce was the next stage after the recapture of Aleppo.
Russia’s claims that all wom- en and children had left eastern Aleppo’s rebel areas were refuted by civilians trapped there.
The Twitter feed of 7-year-old Bana Alabed, who has been called the Anne Frank of Aleppo, posted a message attributed to her mother saying they were stuck in eastern Aleppo.
“Share this message to the whole world. #Aleppo ceasefire broke, civilians are in danger. I beg world do something now to get us out,” it said.
Syrian activist Lina Shamy also posted on Twitter to say that she remained stuck in eastern Aleppo. “Thousands of civilians & a lot of injured still in the besieged districts I confirm, thousands of civilians still here,” she wrote.