ALEPPO: Hundreds of civilians and rebels left Aleppo on Thursday under an evacuation deal that would allow Syria’s regime to take full control of the city after years of fighting.

The rebel withdrawal began a month to the day after President Bashar al-Assad’s forces launched a new offensive to recapture Aleppo and would hand the regime its biggest victory in more than five years of civil war.

In a video message to Syrians, Assad said the “liberation” of Aleppo was “history in the making”.

A revived agreement on a ceasefire and the evacuations was announced on Thursday, after an initial plan for civilians and fighters to leave rebel-held parts of the city collapsed the previous day amid renewed clashes.

The evacuation began with a convoy of ambulances and buses crossing into a government-held district in southern Aleppo around 2:30pm.

A Syrian military source said that 951 evacuees, including 108 wounded, were in the convoy. Most were civilians but about 200 rebel fighters were among them, the source said.

The convoy arrived just over an hour later in opposition territory about five kilometres west of the city, a doctor at the scene said. “The wounded will be transferred to... nearby hospitals for treatment,” said Ahmad al-Dbis, who heads a unit of doctors and other volunteers coordinating the evacuation of wounded people.

The evacuees spent hours gathering earlier at a staging area in Aleppo’s southern Al-Amiriyah district. A correspondent there saw people piling onto the green buses, filling seats and even sitting on the floor, with some worried that there would not be another chance to evacuate.

Many were in tears and some hesitated to board, afraid they would end up in the hands of regime forces. On the dusty window of one of the buses someone had written, “One day we will return”.

Each bus carried a member of the Syrian Red Crescent dressed in the organisation’s red uniform, riding at the front next to the driver.

Ingy Sedky, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s spokeswoman in Syria, said the first convoy included 13 ambulances and 20 buses carrying civilians.

Once the first convoy arrived safely “it will return and collect more people for a second journey and continue like that. We will go today for as long as conditions allow,” she said.

Syrian state television reported that at least 4,000 rebels and their families would be evacuated under the plan. It said preparations were under way for a second convoy to leave rebel-held territory.

A first evacuation attempt on Wednesday morning fell apart, with artillery exchanges and resumed air strikes rocking the city until the early hours of Thursday.

But the agreement, brokered by Syrian regime ally Moscow and opposition supporter Ankara, was revived following fresh talks.

The defence ministry in Moscow said that Syrian authorities had guaranteed the safety of the rebels leaving the city.

France on Thursday requested urgent closed-door consultations at the UN Security Council on the evacuation of civilians and plans for deliveries of aid to Aleppo, diplomats said.

The evacuation was going ahead despite reports earlier on Thursday of pro-regime forces firing on an ambulance transporting the injured to Al-Amiriyah, wounding three people including a member of the White Helmets civil defence organisation.

On Wednesday, cold and hungry civilians had gathered for the initial planned evacuation but were instead sent running through the streets searching for cover as fighting resumed.

Russia accused the rebels of having violated the ceasefire while Turkey accused Assad’s regime and its supporters of blocking the evacuation.

Iran, another key Assad backer, was reported to have imposed new conditions on the agreement, including the evacuation of some civilians from two Shia-majority villages in north-western Syria under rebel siege.

On Thursday, nearly 30 vehicles were headed to Fuaa and Kafraya to evacuate sick and wounded residents, the governor of neighbouring Hama province, Mohamed al-Hazouri, told state news agency SANA.

A Syrian source on the ground said that “1,200 injured and sick people and their families will be evacuated”. Backed by foreign militia forces including fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, the offensive launched last month made rapid gains, leaving the rebels cornered in a tiny pocket of the territory they had controlled since 2012.

More than 465 civilians died in east Aleppo during the assault and another 149 were killed by rebel rocket fire on government-held areas, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

The United Nations this week condemned alleged atrocities being carried out by pro-government fighters, including reported summary executions of men, women and children.

More than 310,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict began, and over half the population has been displaced, with millions becoming refugees.

The United States and other Western nations, Turkey, and Gulf Arab states all backed opposition forces during the war but their support was limited.

The conflict, which began with anti-government protests that were brutally put down, saw a turning point last year when Russia launched an air war in support of Assad.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2016