BEIRUT // The evacuation of fighters and civilians from the last rebel-held neighbourhoods of eastern Aleppo finally began on Thursday, with convoys carrying evacuees across government lines and into opposition territory in the countryside.
Fighters and civilians were set to leave the rebels’ shrunken eastern Aleppo enclave on Wednesday morning, but that deal dissolved as clashes resumed and the Syrian government launched air and artillery strikes. As violence took hold and hope once again faded, Iran-backed pro-government factions issued a demand for the evacuation of two Shiite towns besieged by rebels in Idlib province.
Thursday’s evacuation looked doubtful initially as ambulances attempting to leave eastern Aleppo in the morning came under fire from pro-government fighters, injuring three, according to the Syrian Civil Defence. The evacuation plan was put into action in the afternoon, with nearly 1,000 people leaving aboard 20 buses and a number of ambulances. After dropping off their passengers in rebel-held territory just west of Aleppo, the buses returned to the city to collect more people.
A second convoy of 15 buses began leaving east Aleppo hours later, according to state TV, as a Syrian official confirmed that 30 buses were sent to Kefraya and Foua, the two Shiite villages in Idlib, to ferry out sick and wounded residents.
READ MORE: Staying alive in besieged Aleppo – a Syrian reporter’s notebook
“The gunmen and their families are leaving in batches and will continue during the night until the end of the presence of gunmen in the city,” state TV said.
Syrian president Bashar Al Assad congratulated his country on the “liberation” of Aleppo, calling it “history in the making”.
Russia said its forces were accompanying the convoys.
“At the decision of Russia’s commander-in-chief, president Vladimir Putin, the evacuation of 5,000 militants and their families from eastern Aleppo began on Thursday,” said Gen Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, according to Moscow’s state-run Tass agency.
However, other estimates of the number of civilians remaining in rebel areas of eastern Aleppo, including by the United Nations, run in the tens of thousands.
The UAE on Thursday called for civilians willing to leave the city to be allowed to do so freely and without any threat.
Influential parties in the conflict should do more to protect civilians and to stop indiscriminate bombardment so that humanitarian and medical aid could be delivered to the city, the UAE said in a statement read out by Juma Al Jenaibi, permanent representative at the Arab League and Ambassador to Egypt, at an emergency meeting held at the request of Qatar to discuss developments in Aleppo.
UN Syrian humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said on Thursday that Moscow had promised the evacuation of eastern Aleppo would be “swift”. He added that as many 30,000 civilians may be left in the rebel enclave.
The UN says the evacuation will give priority to wounded and sick residents, then civilians and ultimately fighters.
In order for the evacuation to be successful, the ceasefire in Aleppo will have to hold for the time it takes to move thousands of people out of the city – still a difficult task on a front line where truces often last just hours on the rare occasions they are agreed. Any flare-up of fighting around Aleppo – or against the two Shiite villages in Idlib – could derail the evacuations.
Videos and pictures posted to social media sites in recent days showed residents of the rebel neighbourhoods burning belongings – and even their homes – so they could not be used by pro-government forces.
Others painted graffiti on walls vowing to return.
The withdrawal from Aleppo signifies the rebels’ surrender of the city after four years, with the past three months spent under total siege. It is the single most important victory the Syrian government and its allies have achieved in the nearly six-year-long conflict and a devastating blow that could make the war unwinnable for the rebels.
But the end of the war appears as far away as ever. Already, the pro-government forces are planning to push their offensive after they regain sole control of Aleppo.
In an interview with the Russian NTV and Russia 24 channels broadcast on Wednesday, Mr Al Assad said government forces would turn their attention to clearing rebels from areas around the city.
“Liberating Aleppo doesn’t end with liberating the city itself, for it needs to be secured on the outside,” he said.
Those evacuating Aleppo will arrive in areas that are themselves the targets of Syrian and Russian jets – places that will likely soon face a major government offensive. But after months of siege that emptied food stores and provided the constant and lingering threat of death, those who have finally escaped what is left of east Aleppo will likely be thinking more about a meal and a night’s sleep than the trials to come.
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Aleppo under siege
■ No roads to safety for terrified east Aleppo residents
■ Life in east Aleppo goes from bad to worse as desperate civilians loot food stores
■ Bare shelves and rising prices in besieged eastern Aleppo
■ Family's struggle for survival inside besieged Aleppo
jwood@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting from Reuters and Agence France-Presse
