Residents of east Aleppo anxiously await evacuation

14/12/2016| IslamWeb

An agreed evacuation of opposition forces and civilians from the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo has been delayed, according to activists in besieged parts of the city and a monitor.

Bus-loads of people were set to begin leaving on Wednesday morning as part of a deal with the regime, whose forces have taken control of the entire city after weeks of heavy fighting.

No fighter or civilian had left eastern Aleppo as of 5am (03:00 GMT), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group that relies on a network of informants in the country to monitor the war, said.

The group did not give a reason for the delay of the evacuation. One Syrian opposition official told the Reuters news agency that pro-regime Shia militias were obstructing the departure of people from opposition-held districts.

Zouhir Al Shimale, a journalist in east Aleppo, told Al Jazeera that the streets were mostly empty in the morning, although the remaining residents were waiting to be evacuated.

"There is no movement outside right now ... No one has left yet. We didn't sleep last night," he said on Wednesday. "We have been waiting for the injured to leave [town]."

Russia's UN ambassador announced late on Tuesday that all military action in east Aleppo had come to a halt and that the Syrian regime was in control of the area.

"Over the last hour we have received information that the military activities in east Aleppo have stopped, it has stopped," Vitaly Churkin told a heated emergency UN Security Council meeting.

Fears have been growing for thousands of trapped civilians as the opposition fighters make a desperate last stand in their remaining pocket of territory in their former stronghold.

"An agreement has been reached for the evacuation of the residents of Aleppo, civilians and fighters with their light weapons, from the besieged districts of east Aleppo," Yasser al-Youssef, from the political office of the Nureddin al-Zinki rebel group, told AFP news agency.

He said the deal was "sponsored by Russia and Turkey" and would be implemented "within hours".

Huseyin Muftuoglu, a Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that civilians would first be evacuated from Aleppo, followed by opposition fighters.

"They would move towards Idlib, according to the plan," he said. "There is no plan to take them into Turkey."

Later on Tuesday, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek announced his government was planning to set up a new tent city to host "80,000 people fleeing eastern Aleppo". He did not specify whether the "tent city" would be in Turkey or Syria.

News of the deal broke just minutes before the Security Council meeting on Aleppo began at UN headquarters in New York.

The UN earlier said that they received reports about pro-regime forces executing scores of civilians in Aleppo, including women and children.

Eighty-two people were reportedly killed when Syrian forces took over opposition-held areas, it said.

Forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad have in some cases entered homes and killed those inside, and in others "caught and killed on the spot" fleeing civilians, Rupert Colville, the UN rights office spokesman, said on Tuesday.

"The reports that civilians - including children - are being massacred in cold blood in their homes by Syrian regime forces are deeply shocking but not unexpected given their conduct to date. Such extrajudicial executions would amount to war crimes," Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty International's Beirut Regional office, said.
'A surrender, not a ceasefire'

Haid Haid, a Syrian researcher and associate fellow at Chatham House, said the evacuation deal was more of "a surrender, not a ceasefire".

"This situation will be similar to previous situations: opposition fighters and civilians ... would be allowed out, most likely to rural Aleppo or Idlib, and the Syrian regime will take over the rest of Aleppo," he told Al Jazeera.
But with the Syrian regime and its allies making steady progress on the battlefield, many were unsure that any deal would take place, Haid said.

"Negotiations have been ongoing for days now, and now the regime is sure that [it] is winning. So unless there is serious pressure from the international community on Russia, on the regime, I think this deal might not even happen because they think they're winning ... why allow [the rebels] out if we can kill the rest of them there and now."

PHOTO CAPTION

People walk as they flee deeper into the remaining opposition-held areas of Aleppo, Syria December 13, 2016. REUTERS

Al-Jazeera