By Anne Barnard
Beirut: The evacuation of residents from the last rebel-held section in the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo broke down on Friday, with thousands of people still trapped inside, as concerns grew about their fate.
The breakdown – a day after Syrian government buses and ambulances had begun taking people out of the besieged area – came as Russia claimed, incorrectly, that all civilians wishing to leave had already been evacuated and that only "irreconcilable" fighters remained, further raising fears among those still trapped.
The World Health Organisation's Syria representative, Elizabeth Hoff, said thousands remained, including many women and many children younger than five. She said WHO staff had been ordered to leave the evacuation area on Friday morning, but "no reason was given".
Tensions came to a head when a convoy of hundreds of evacuees was detained and turned back by pro-government militiamen. They blocked the way, according to rebel and pro-government fighters, because insurgents in Idlib province, further north, were blocking an evacuation of civilians from two villages besieged by rebels.
A Syrian man pulls belongings as he is evacuated with his family from AleppoCredit: AP
There were also multiple accounts that the pro-government militiamen had shot dead several passengers in the convoy, detained at least six and took mobile phones, laptops and documents from others, before sending the rest back into the rebel enclave. Those accounts could not be independently confirmed.
The government's recapture of Aleppo, once Syria's commercial centre, after a prolonged siege by Syrian forces aided by their Russian allies has been exalted by President Bashar al-Assad as a turning point in the nearly six-year-old war. But the images of death, suffering and destruction have shocked the world.
Civilians and fighters had been being bussed out of the shrinking rebel area under a deal struck between Russia, which backs the Syrian government, and Turkey, which supports the rebels.
The breakdown was blamed on hard-line spoilers on both sides – pro-government, Iran-backed Shiite militias and the al-Qaida-linked Levant Conquest Front on the rebel side – illustrating the fragmentation of both government and rebel forces that makes implementing any deal harder and riskier.
Residents gather for evacuation from eastern Aleppo.Credit: AP
The deal became more complicated after Iran, Syria's other main ally, which has sponsored thousands of Shiite militiamen to shore up government forces, added a new demand: evacuations from Foua and Kfarya, two government-held minority Shiite villages encircled and frequently shelled by rebels who had intensified attacks during the government offensive in Aleppo. Rebel leaders said a deal was struck to evacuate wounded people from the villages.
Nearly 10,000 civilians and fighters had been bused out of eastern Aleppo by Friday morning, Russian and opposition officials agree, but none from Foua and Kfarya. Al Manar, the television channel of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which fights alongside the Syrian government, showed what it said were protesters blocking the convoy route out of eastern Aleppo.
France said on Friday that it would sponsor a UN resolution requiring "international observers" to monitor the evacuations. The United States said it would support the move, a largely symbolic gesture because of a likely Russian veto. The Syrian government has denied UN staff permission to monitor the process, and the ICRC avoids roles that involve making public reports, to preserve its access to all sides.
Rebel leaders said they were deeply concerned by Russia's statements playing down the presence of civilians presence because it had been the guarantor of the evacuations. They feared it had lost control of Iran and its ground allies, and was seeking to absolve itself of any new violence against civilians.
Adding to the volatility of the situation, many of the Levant Conquest Front's fighters have already been bussed out of eastern Aleppo, according to a civilian who rode with them. That could give the hard-line group less incentive to cooperate with the Idlib evacuation.
New York Times