Thousands leave Aleppo under rebel withdrawal deal

ALEPPO, Syria (UPDATED) – Thousands of civilians and rebels left Aleppo on Thursday, December 15, under an evacuation deal that will allow Syria’s regime to take full control of the city after years of fighting.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the operation could take days as US Secretary of State John Kerry warned action was needed to prevent a Srebrenica-style massacre with tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in the city.

Three convoys left Aleppo carrying wounded civilians, fighters and their families, with civilians mostly leaving on buses and ambulances,  in the first evacuations under a deal for opposition fighters to leave the city after years of fighting.

“Some 3,000 civilians and more than 40 wounded, including children, were brought out,” the head of the International Committee for the Red Cross in Syria, Marianne Gasser, said after the first two convoys left.

“No one knows how many people are left in the east, and the evacuation could take days,” she added.

The withdrawal began a month to the day after Syrian government forces launched a major offensive to retake all of Aleppo, and will hand the regime its biggest victory in more than 5 years of civil war.

In a video message to Syrians, President Bashar al-Assad said the “liberation” of Aleppo was “history in the making.”

A revived agreement on a ceasefire and the evacuations was announced on Thursday, after an initial plan for civilians and fighters to leave rebel-held parts of east Aleppo collapsed the previous day amid renewed clashes.

Evacuees spent several hours gathering at a staging area with assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross then, around 2:30 pm (1230 GMT), an Agence France-Presse correspondent in the city saw the first vehicles leave rebel territory.

The slow-moving convoy of around two dozen vehicles snaked out of Al-Amiriyah district in southern Aleppo and crossed into government-held Ramussa.

An AFP correspondent at the staging area said people were piling onto the buses, filling seats and even sitting on the floor, with some worried that there would not be another chance to evacuate.

Many were in tears and some hesitated to board the buses, afraid they would end up in the hands of regime forces.

The convoy was led by vehicles from the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, followed by ambulances and then green government buses.

Syrian state television reported that at least 4,000 rebels and their families would be evacuated under the plan.

Thousands still trapped

US chief diplomat Kerry said what had already happened in the city was “unconscionable” but warned over the fate of “tens of thousands of lives that are now concentrated into a very small area of Aleppo.”

“And the last thing anybody wants to see… is that that small area turns into another Srebrenica,” he said, referring to a 1995 Bosnian war massacre.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said Thursday that around 50,000 people were still trapped, including 40,000 civilians.

A first evacuation expected to take place on Wednesday morning fell apart, with artillery exchanges and resumed air strikes rocking the city until the early hours of Thursday.

But the agreement, brokered by Syrian regime ally Moscow and opposition supporter Ankara, was revived following fresh talks.

The defense ministry in Moscow said that Syrian authorities had guaranteed the safety of the rebels leaving the city.

The head of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, told reporters in Geneva that “most” of those evacuated from Aleppo would be headed to opposition stronghold Idlib, in Syria’s northwest.

Egeland said the UN had two humanitarian hubs set up in the province. 

“Russians and others assure us that there will be a pause in the fighting… when we assist the evacuation,” Egeland said.

Pressure on Russia

The UN Security Council will meet Friday, December 16, to discuss the crisis in Aleppo in response to a request by France, which is calling for international observers to be sent to monitor the situation and ensure aid deliveries.

European Union leaders also tried to pile pressure on Russia Thursday, urging the Kremlin to protect civilians, but EU President Donald Tusk however acknowledged the bloc was largely powerless.

“We know we are not effective enough. Unfortunately I know who is effective enough, not in humanitarian assistance but in bombing,” Tusk said.

Russia meanwhile accused the rebels of having violated the ceasefire as violence erupted before Wednesday’s planned evacuation while Turkey accused Assad’s regime and its allies of blocking people from leaving.

Iran, another key Assad backer, was reported to have imposed new conditions on the agreement, including the evacuation of some civilians from two Shiite-majority villages in northwestern Syria under rebel siege.

Ambulance ‘fired on’

The evacuation was going ahead despite reports earlier Thursday of pro-regime forces firing on an ambulance transporting the injured to Al-Amiriyah, wounding three people including a member of the White Helmets civil defense organisation.

On Wednesday, cold and hungry civilians had gathered for the initial planned evacuation but were instead sent running through the streets searching for cover as the fighting resumed.

Russia accused the rebels of having violated the ceasefire while Turkey accused Assad’s regime and its supporters of blocking the evacuation.

Iran, another key Assad backer, was reported to have imposed new conditions on the agreement, including the evacuation of some civilians from two Shiite-majority villages in northwestern Syria under rebel siege.

On Thursday, nearly 30 vehicles were headed to the two villages, Fuaa and Kafraya, to evacuate sick and wounded residents, the governor of neighbouring Hama province, Mohamed al-Hazouri, told state news agency SANA.

A Syrian source on the ground told Agence France-Presse that “1,200 injured and sick people and their families will be evacuated.”

The new deal Thursday was announced a month to the day after pro-government forces launched a major new offensive to retake all of Aleppo, large parts of which had been in rebel hands since 2012.

Backed by foreign militia forces including fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement, the advance made rapid gains, seizing more than 90 percent of rebel territory within a few weeks.

Shrinking rebel territory

More than 465 civilians, including 62 children, have died in east Aleppo during the assault, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Another 149 civilians, among them 45 children, have been killed by rebel rocket fire on government-held zones in the same period, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

The United Nations and Western countries this week condemned alleged atrocities being carried out by pro-government fighters during the advance, including reported summary executions of men, women and children.

A UN panel said on Wednesday that it had also received reports that rebel fighters were blocking civilians from leaving and using them as human shields. 

More than 310,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict began, and over half the population has been displaced, with millions becoming refugees.

The United States and other Western nations, Turkey, and Gulf Arab states all backed opposition forces during the war but their support was limited.

The conflict, which began with anti-government protests that were brutally put down, saw a turning point last year when Russia launched an air war in support of Assad.

With Aleppo out of rebel hands, the largest remaining rebel bastion is Idlib province, which is controlled by an alliance dominated by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.

Rebels also hold territory in southern Daraa province and the Ghouta region around Damascus, although the army has been advancing there. – Rappler.com