Evacuation corridor allows rebels and civilians to leave Aleppo

Thursday, December 15, 2016

At 3:00 GMT today, a cease-fire took effect between Syria's Russian-backed al-Assad regime and the rebels who have been fighting for control of Aleppo for the past four years. Evacuation of rebels and civilians is underway.

Buses and ambulances provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Syrian Red Crescent, and the al-Assad government arrived in the city's rebel enclave to evacuate rebels, their families and other residents to the nearby rebel-held towns of Khan al-Asal and Khan Touman. By 10:00 GMT, local noon, about 950 people were on their way out of Aleppo. Many rebels are also leaving on their own vehicles.

Russian military's General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, says the "humanitarian corridor" is 21 kilometers long, 6 kilometers of which passes through territory controlled by the al-Assad government. According to the Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, the regime has guaranteed the evacuees' safety, but Ibrahim Abu Allaith of the Syrian Civil Defence claims pro-government forces fired on departing injured persons, killing one and wounding four.

Independent journalist Zouhir al-Shimale reported: "Civilians are given the choice to stay or leave. If they stay, they'll be under regime control. Most of the people want to go because they are afraid of potential massacres by the regime."

The ultimate destination of the evacuees is Idlib Province, which the International Rescue Committee says is likely to be targeted by barrel bombs and besieged.

The evacuation was scheduled to begin earlier this week but was interrupted by fighting on Wednesday.

With a population of 2.3 million, Aleppo was Syria's largest city, the center of much of its industrial and commercial activity, and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Aleppo Syria battle: Evacuation of rebel-held east under way" — BBC, December 15, 2016
"What's happening in Aleppo?" — BBC, December 15, 2016
"Evacuation of east Aleppo underway during ceasefire" — al-Jazeera, December 15, 2016
Laila Bassam, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Tom Perry. "Aleppo rebel evacuation under way after ceasefire deal" — Reuters, December 15, 2016

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License