BEIRUT
– The Syrian government suspended evacuations from eastern Aleppo just
hours after they resumed on Friday, saying that rebels had opened fire on a
convoy of evacuees at a crossing point with the enclave, state TV reported.
It wasn't immediately clear how long the
suspension would last or whether it would delay the cease-fire deal under which
tens of thousands of residents and rebel fighters are being evacuated to
opposition-controlled areas in the surrounding countryside, a process likely to
take several days.
Earlier on Friday, as the evacuations resumed
for a second day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a major new Syria
peace initiative, saying he and his Turkish counterpart are working to set up
peace talks between Damascus and the opposition in Kazakhstan.
The evacuations seal the end of the Syrian
rebels' most important stronghold — the eastern part of the city of Aleppo —
and mark a watershed moment in the country's civil war, now in its sixth year.
In announcing the suspensions, the Syrian TV
also claimed that the rebels had tried to take with them captives they had
seized and were holding in the rebel enclave during bitter battles to defend
their territory from a ferocious, weeks-long onslaught by Syrian President
Bashar Assad's troops.
Lebanon's Al-Manar Hezbollah TV said the
Syrian army stopped the evacuation process because the rebels had violated the
cease-fire deal. Hezbollah militiamen are fighting in the Syrian conflict
alongside Assad's forces.
The Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV said buses that
were parked at the Ramouseh crossing point had left the area after it was
targeted by gunmen.
Speaking on a visit to Japan, Putin said that
the negotiations would take place in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and
that he and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are also working for an
overall truce in Syria. Putin said Ankara had helped broker the rebel exit from
Aleppo that is currently underway.
However, the Western-backed Syrian opposition
is unlikely to accept the location Putting had proposed for e negotiations.
On Friday morning, dozens of green public
buses and ambulances were parked in the southern Aleppo neighborhood of
Ramouseh to evacuate more people from eastern Aleppo. Syrian state TV showed a
truck with dozens of men, driving through the corridor leading the rebel-held
parts of the surrounding provinces.
The TV said that since the early hours of the
day, four convoys have left Aleppo. It said some of the evacuees were using
their own vehicles to leave.
There have been contradicting numbers of how
many people have been evacuated from Aleppo on Thursday. Syrian state TV
reported than more than 9,000 people were evacuated on Thursday alone in
Aleppo. The TV said the evacuees included 3,475 men, 3,137 women, 2,359
children and 108 wounded people.
The International Committee of the Red Cross
said about 4,000 civilians were taken out on Thursday. Syrian state news agency
says 2,300 opposition fighters and their families left Aleppo the previous
night.
Russia, a key Assad ally, says that more than
6,462 people, including more than 3,000 rebels and 301 wounded, have been taken
out.
For the opposition, the evacuation was a
humiliating defeat. A smiling Assad called it a historic event comparable to
the birth of Christ and the revelation of the Quran.
The Lebanon-based pan-Arab TV stations
Al-Mayadeen interviewed an official with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the
central province of Hama who said that buses and ambulances are waiting to
evacuate thousands of people two Shiite villages besieged by rebels — a
last-minute condition that became part of the cease-fire deal for Aleppo.
The SARC official said they will likely begin
the evacuation of 15,000 people from Foua and Kefraya adding that the priority
will be for the wounded, elderly people, women, children and those with chronic
illnesses.
State TV said 110 buses and 19 medical teams
were being ready to take those being evacuated from the two Shiite villages.
Iran had demanded to tie the evacuations from Foua and Kefraya with Aleppo's.
Separately, Hezbollah's media arm said Syrian
government supporters closed the road used by evacuees form Aleppo, demanding
the wounded from the two villages be allowed to leave
FOXNEWS
Comments