BEIRUT: Syrian opposition fighters said on Wednesday they had reached a deal with the regime of Bashar Assad in Damascus to resume evacuations from the last opposition territory in the eastern part of the city of Aleppo.
Ahmad Qara Ali, spokesman for the Ahrar Al-Sham faction, announced on Wednesday afternoon that “an agreement has been reached to resume the evacuation of Aleppo.”
He said that “evacuations will begin shortly.”
Syrian opposition forces agreed to surrender their last foothold in the city to the regime last week. But a dispute delayed the final round of evacuations for over 24 hours after some 20,000 civilians and fighters were bused out of the war-torn city.
The regime is expected to announce it has retaken full control of the city when the operations are complete.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it is prepared to facilitate the evacuations when they resume.
Earlier on Wednesday, a convoy of 60 buses carrying people desperate to leave Aleppo was held up in freezing temperatures when the deal hit a last-minute hitch.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said the bus convoy entered the last besieged pocket of the city on Tuesday in harsh weather conditions and some were loaded with people, but they had not moved since.
Eight buses en route to Aleppo from the pro-regime villages of Foua and Kefraya had also been held up since Tuesday, the Observatory said.
Regime forces had insisted the two villages, besieged by opposition fighters in Idlib, must be included in the deal to bring people out of east Aleppo.
State television, broadcasting live from near the Aleppo departure zone, said the opposition had presented new conditions with the aim of obstructing the evacuation deal. Fighters said the regime was to blame for hindering the evacuations.
So far, about 25,000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is helping with the process. A UN official said 750 people had so far been evacuated from Foua and Kefraya.
Behind those leaving Aleppo’s opposition zone was a wasteland of flattened buildings, concrete rubble and bullet-pocked walls, where tens of thousands lived until recent days under intense bombardment even after medical and rescue services had collapsed.
The Syrian regime used loudspeakers to broadcast warnings to the opposition that it was about to enter their rapidly diminishing area and told them to speed up their evacuation.
The United Nations had said it had sent 20 more staff to east Aleppo to monitor the evacuation.
“Some have arrived Tuesday and more will be arriving today and in the coming days,” Jens Laerke, UN spokesman in Geneva told Reuters.
Both combatants blamed the other side for the delay.
Ahmad Al-Dbis, a medical aid worker heading a team evacuating patients from Aleppo, said people are waiting in the buses, and the buses are not heated, and it’s very cold.
“Many of the evacuees told us they had been stopped for more than 20 hours in the cold and snow.”
Various problems have beset the evacuation, with estimates of how many have left and how many remain varying widely.
The Observatory said nearly 3,000 people still remain in the east Aleppo enclave.
Opposition-held parts of the once-flourishing economic center with its renowned ancient sites has been pulverized during the war which has killed more than 300,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis and allowed for the rise of Daesh.
But in the much larger western part of the city, held throughout the war by the government, there were big street parties on Tuesday night, along with the lighting of a Christmas tree, as residents celebrated the end of fighting.
Ahmad Qara Ali, spokesman for the Ahrar Al-Sham faction, announced on Wednesday afternoon that “an agreement has been reached to resume the evacuation of Aleppo.”
He said that “evacuations will begin shortly.”
Syrian opposition forces agreed to surrender their last foothold in the city to the regime last week. But a dispute delayed the final round of evacuations for over 24 hours after some 20,000 civilians and fighters were bused out of the war-torn city.
The regime is expected to announce it has retaken full control of the city when the operations are complete.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it is prepared to facilitate the evacuations when they resume.
Earlier on Wednesday, a convoy of 60 buses carrying people desperate to leave Aleppo was held up in freezing temperatures when the deal hit a last-minute hitch.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said the bus convoy entered the last besieged pocket of the city on Tuesday in harsh weather conditions and some were loaded with people, but they had not moved since.
Eight buses en route to Aleppo from the pro-regime villages of Foua and Kefraya had also been held up since Tuesday, the Observatory said.
Regime forces had insisted the two villages, besieged by opposition fighters in Idlib, must be included in the deal to bring people out of east Aleppo.
State television, broadcasting live from near the Aleppo departure zone, said the opposition had presented new conditions with the aim of obstructing the evacuation deal. Fighters said the regime was to blame for hindering the evacuations.
So far, about 25,000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is helping with the process. A UN official said 750 people had so far been evacuated from Foua and Kefraya.
Behind those leaving Aleppo’s opposition zone was a wasteland of flattened buildings, concrete rubble and bullet-pocked walls, where tens of thousands lived until recent days under intense bombardment even after medical and rescue services had collapsed.
The Syrian regime used loudspeakers to broadcast warnings to the opposition that it was about to enter their rapidly diminishing area and told them to speed up their evacuation.
The United Nations had said it had sent 20 more staff to east Aleppo to monitor the evacuation.
“Some have arrived Tuesday and more will be arriving today and in the coming days,” Jens Laerke, UN spokesman in Geneva told Reuters.
Both combatants blamed the other side for the delay.
Ahmad Al-Dbis, a medical aid worker heading a team evacuating patients from Aleppo, said people are waiting in the buses, and the buses are not heated, and it’s very cold.
“Many of the evacuees told us they had been stopped for more than 20 hours in the cold and snow.”
Various problems have beset the evacuation, with estimates of how many have left and how many remain varying widely.
The Observatory said nearly 3,000 people still remain in the east Aleppo enclave.
Opposition-held parts of the once-flourishing economic center with its renowned ancient sites has been pulverized during the war which has killed more than 300,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis and allowed for the rise of Daesh.
But in the much larger western part of the city, held throughout the war by the government, there were big street parties on Tuesday night, along with the lighting of a Christmas tree, as residents celebrated the end of fighting.
