Evacuations In Aleppo Resume After Buses Set On Fire

MEP: The evacuation of Syrian’s east Aleppo has resumed, with dozens of buses carrying evacuees from the last rebel-held district travelled to opposition-controlled areas of countryside outside the city early on Monday.

According to medical officials, a total of about 3,500 militants and their families have been evacuated.

The move came despite the official postponement of evacuations of civilians and fighters from the devastated Syrian city and as the UN security council prepared to vote on a resolution to deploy observers to the city, with Syria-allied Russia giving cautious backing to the measure.

A United Nations official told Reuters that 50 buses and two ambulances had left the rebel zone, while the so-called UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said 65 buses had left carrying about 3,500 people.

Among those to have left is seven-year-old Bana Alabed, who had tweeted about conditions in the city.

According to Syrian media, the evacuation of wounded and civilians trapped in the two villages was a condition for the evacuation of militants in eastern Aleppo.

Recently, Russia and Turkey reached a deal enabling the evacuation of thousands of trapped civilians and militants from Aleppo.

The process was, however, halted after the militants violated the ceasefire deal and blocked the transfer of civilians from al-Fou’a and Kefraya.

The buses were intercepted in an area under the control of Jund al-Aqsa, a jihadi faction aligned to the Syrian opposition. The deal to partially lift a siege of the villages, Fua and Kefraya, had been opposed by the al-Qaeda-inspired Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which was largely responsible for a three-year siege of the majority-Shia enclaves.

The evacuations from rebel-held areas of Aleppo had been suspended on Friday, a day after convoys of people had begun leaving the rebel sector under a deal allowing the regime to take full control of the battleground city.

Takfiri militants seized Aleppo back in 2012. The city was recently restored to government control on the back of a month-long military operation. The Syrian government is now in control of all major cities.