Buses are again poised to start
evacuations from a rebel-held enclave in the Syrian city of Aleppo under
a renewed but fragile deal.
Fighters and civilians had been due
to leave on Wednesday, but a ceasefire collapsed. Rebels say a new truce
came into effect on Thursday morning.
One convoy of ambulances tried to leave but was shot at, rebel sources said.
Government forces took nearly all remaining rebel-held parts of Aleppo this week after a four-year battle.
Syrian
state TV said "4,000 rebels and their families would be evacuated from
eastern districts on Thursday", adding that "all the procedures for
their evacuation are ready".
A media unit run by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia Muslim movement
backing the Syrian government, said there had been "big complications"
but that "intensive contacts between the responsible parties... led to
re-consolidating a ceasefire to exit armed fighters from eastern
districts in the next few hours".
Soldiers from Russia - Syria's
ally - would lead the rebels out, escorting them along a corridor
towards Idlib city on buses and ambulances, with surveillance drones
monitoring the situation, a statement from the Russian Centre for the
Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, part of Russia's ministry of
defence, said.
The buses will reportedly leave Aleppo on the road through the
government-controlled south-western district of Ramousseh to the
rebel-held town of Khan Touman, about 8km (5 miles) away.
The
statement also said that Syrian authorities had guaranteed the safety of
all members of the armed groups who decided to leave Aleppo.
The
BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow says that the phrasing "on the orders of
President Putin" in the statement is significant, apparently
underlining the country's commitment to the deal.
The Red Cross
and Syrian Arab Red Crescent confirmed they would be involved in the
operation to evacuate wounded but had not yet started.
Ismail al-Abdullah, a volunteer for the White Helmets civil defence
group, told the BBC that buses had now entered the area in which he was
working and that he hoped the evacuation would now take place.
But the White Helmets tweeted
that one senior volunteer had been shot and injured by a sniper while
clearing an evacuation route for ambulances. In a separate tweet, the
group said it was suspending its evacuation operation.
An ambulance service official in eastern Aleppo said one convoy of
ambulances did leave but had been shot at, with three people injured. An
opposition source told the BBC the convoy had headed back to eastern
Aleppo.
BBC Arabic's Asaf Aboud, in Aleppo, says there was some shelling by rebels and air strikes by government forces overnight.
The
new deal should allow the simultaneous evacuation of two villages -
Foah and Kefraya - being besieged by rebels in north-western Syria.
Syria's
government and its ally Iran had insisted the evacuation from eastern
Aleppo could happen only when those villages were evacuated.
On Wednesday morning, buses and ambulances had been brought to
evacuate rebel fighters and their families - only to be turned away
shortly afterwards.
Hours after the first agreement - brokered
mainly by Russia and Turkey - collapsed, air strikes resumed over
rebel-held territory, where up to 50,000 civilians remain.
It is
not clear how many rebel fighters remain in the besieged areas. UN envoy
Staffan de Mistura said there were approximately 1,500, about 30% of
whom were from the jihadist group formerly known as the al-Nusra Front.
The
UN said raids by the Syrian government and its allies on an area
"packed with civilians" most probably violated international law.
The BBC has learned that Western forces are using satellites and unmanned aircraft to gather evidence of possible war crimes in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.
Meanwhile, demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Aleppo
have taken place in cities across the world, including Hamburg in
Germany, Sarajevo in Bosnia and Rabat in Morocco.
The lights of
the Eiffel Tower were also dimmed. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she
hoped the gesture would highlight the need for "urgent action" to help
the people of Aleppo.
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