Civilians stay up all night awaiting evacuation but buses fail to leave as shelling of rebel-held territory resumes.

Syrian government forces claim to have taken control of more than 98 percent of eastern Aleppo [EPA/SANA handout]

by Al Jazeera

Syrian government forces have renewed shelling on the last holdouts of rebel-held eastern Aleppo, according to opposition activists and local journalists, raising fears that a deal to evacuate civilians and rebels from the devastated city may not be honoured.

“There is artillery [being fired] now … as I speak,” Zouhir Al Shimale, a journalist in east Aleppo, told Al Jazeera in a WhatsApp message on Wednesday morning.

“There aren’t any clashes,” he said, explaining that rebel groups were not fighting at the moment. “There are injuries, but we don’t know how many. We can’t go outside because the shelling is indiscriminate.”

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said shelling could be heard, but its origin was not clear. Speaking to the Reuters news agency, rebel commanders said government forces had renewed shelling and violated a ceasefire reached a day earlier.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed that government forces had resumed attacks, claiming that rebel groups broke the ceasefire in the early morning, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Aleppo, once Syria’s bustling commercial hub, had been largely divided between a government-held west and a rebel-controlled east since 2012. But government forces are now in control of almost the entire city after weeks of intense fighting and relentless air raids.

On Tuesday night, it was announced that a ceasefire between the Syrian government and rebel groups would allow for the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents from the last pockets of rebel-held eastern Aleppo to the Idlib area or to Turkey.

The deal was brokered by Turkey and Russia.

The arrangement was delayed on Wednesday morning, though, with rebel groups claiming that a government-aligned Shia militia had turned back evacuees and demanded that rebel-imposed sieges of the Shia majority towns of Kafraya and Fua were first lifted.

‘Massacred in cold blood’

“People here are shocked [by the delay],” Shimale said. “We didn’t sleep last night waiting to leave.”

Explaining that civilians were scared that the evacuation could be delayed further, Shimale said: “No one knows what the regime will do.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he expected the last of the “rebel resistance” to end within two to three days.

In what appeared to be a separate development from the planned evacuation, the Russian defence ministry said 6,000 civilians and 366 fighters had left rebel-held districts of Aleppo over the past 24 hours.

Fears have been growing for thousands of trapped civilians as rebels make a desperate last stand in their remaining pocket of territory.

Late on Tuesday, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek announced his government was planning to set up a new tent city to host “80,000 people fleeing eastern Aleppo”. He did not specify whether the facility would be in Turkey or Syria.

The UN said on Tuesday that they received reports about pro-government forces executing scores of civilians in Aleppo, including women and children.

Eighty-two people were reportedly killed when Syrian forces took over rebel-held areas, it said.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have, in some cases, entered homes and killed those inside, and, in others, “caught and killed on the spot” fleeing civilians, Rupert Colville, the UN rights office spokesman, said on Tuesday.

“The reports that civilians – including children – are being massacred in cold blood in their homes by Syrian government forces are deeply shocking but not unexpected given their conduct to date,” Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office, said. “Such extrajudicial executions would amount to war crimes.”

‘Major blow’

Marwan Kabalan, a Syria analyst and associate political analyst at the Doha Institute, said that the ceasefire breach may signal growing differences between Russia and Iran.

“The Russians seem to be bowing to international pressure in order to make the truce hold,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It’s clear the Iranians have a different opinion here … I think they believe that they are winning and must finish off the opposition, rather than allow them to leave the city alive. The Syrian regime seems to be closer to the Iranian position,” he said, describing eastern Aleppo’s fall as a “major blow” to opposition forces.

Syria’s conflict started as a largely unarmed uprising against President Assad in March 2011. It has since morphed into a full-scale civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and left more than half the country’s prewar population displaced.

Efforts to negotiate a lasting resolution between the Syrian government and rebel groups have collapsed several times.

More than 4,000 fighters converge on ancient city, forcing government troops to retreat south in reversal of fortunes.

Before the war some 150,000 tourists a year visited Palmyra [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

ISIL has recaptured the Syrian city of Palmyra after thousands of its fighters launched a multi-pronged assault on the ancient city, according to reports.

The Russian Monitoring Centre in Syria said on Sunday that ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, had drawn on “significant forces” from its strongholds in nearby Raqqa and Deir Az-zor, with more than 4,000 fighters, backed by tanks, attacking the city.

Russia, Syria’s ally, had launched a flurry of air strikes overnight that reportedly killed 300 ISIL fighters and forced the group to retreat.

However, later on Sunday, ISIL, also known as ISIS, claimed to be in full control of Palmyra via Amaq, a news agency that supports the group, with government troops forced to retreat to the south of the city.

Talal al-Barazi, the governor of Homs, confirmed to Syrian state TV that ISIL had captured Palmyra, adding that the army was using all of its means to regain control.

ISIL captured Palmyra, also known as Tadmur, in May last year, before losing the city 10 months later to much international fanfare.

During that time, it destroyed some ancient sites and artefacts while using others to stage mass executions.

String of defeats

ISIL also destroyed the infamous Tadmur prison, where thousands of government opponents were reported to have been tortured.

ISIL has suffered a string of defeats in both Syria and Iraq in recent months, losing several towns and cities it had captured in 2014.

According to defence analysts at the think tank IHS Jane, ISIL lost about 12 percent of its territory in 2016, and about 14 percent in 2015.

US defence secretary says move meant to assist Kurdish and Arab troops fighting to capture ISIL’s Syrian stronghold.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters are battling ISIS in areas north of Raqqa [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The United States will send another 200 troops to Syria to help an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters seize the ISIL bastion of Raqqa, US defence secretary Ashton Carter has said.

“I can tell you today that the United States will deploy approximately 200 additional US forces in Syria,” Carter told Gulf policymakers in the Bahraini capital, Manama, on Saturday.

They will complement 300 American special forces already in Syria to assist US-backed Kurdish-Arab troops who, in recent weeks, began their offensive on Raqqa, the Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

That operation coincides with a US-backed Iraqi effort to retake Mosul.

The two cities are the last major urban centres under ISIL control after the group suffered a string of territorial losses in Iraq and Syria over the past year.

Carter told the Manama Dialogue security forum that the troop reinforcements will include bomb disposal experts and trainers, as well as special forces.

Car bombs and elaborate networks of booby traps and mines have been ISIL’s favoured weapons, as they have battled to defend what remains of the “caliphate” they declared across Iraq and Syria in 2012.

Battle for Aleppo

Meanwhile, US secretary of state John Kerry and leading diplomats are trying to find solutions for Syria’s desperate opposition, as Syrian government forces squeeze rebel fighters out of Aleppo after a devastating blitz.

With tens of thousands of civilians fleeing, Kerry said he is working to ensure their safety and to prevent Aleppo “from being absolutely, completely destroyed”.

Kerry is meeting French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, European and Arab diplomats and members of Syria’s opposition in Paris on Saturday.

US and Russian military experts and diplomats are also meeting in Geneva to work out details of the rebels’ exit from eastern Aleppo.

A 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia’s Sumatra island has killed at least 97 people and trapped dozens in rubble.

by Al Jazeera

Scores have died and dozens were feared trapped in rubble after a strong earthquake struck off the coast of Aceh province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, officials and local media said.

The province’s army chief, Major General Tatang Sulaiman, told the DPA news agency that 97 people have died in the shallow 6.5-magnitude undersea quake that struck early on Wednesday.

The national disaster mitigation agency on the other hand, said that 78 people have suffered serious injuries from the quake.

Aiyub Abbas, the district chief of Pidie Jayat, said that hundreds of people in the district had been injured and dozens of buildings had collapsed.

There was an urgent need for excavation equipment to move heavy debris and emergency supplies, Abbas said.

Said Mulyadi, deputy district chief of Pidie Jaya, told the AFP news agency that seven children were among the dead, with a local hospital overwhelmed by the number of people arriving with injuries.

“The hospital here couldn’t take the patients, so we sent some to the neighbouring district,” he said.

The quake struck at dawn, as some in the predominantly Muslim region prepared for morning prayers.

“It happened at five o’clock this morning, people were shaken by a heavy earthquake,” Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said. “People rushed out of their houses, because they have the experience from 2004 when a huge tsunami hit Aceh and many died.”

Vaessen said many people rushed to surrounding hills to seek cover.

‘Death toll likely to rise’

No tsunami alert was issued and there was no risk of a tsunami, according to Indonesian authorities.

But mosques, homes and shops were flattened in the quake, with images from the worst-hit areas showing significant damage.

The local disaster management agency said that rescue efforts were under way to save those trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

“Some people are still trapped inside shophouses, and we are trying to evacuate them using heavy machines and by hand,” local agency head Puteh Manaf said.

“At the moment a search and rescue operation is under way, teams are still heading to the area also trying to find more survivors,” said Al Jazeera’s Vaessen. “But the death toll is likely to rise … there are people believed to be trapped in buildings.”

Seismologists said the earthquake was felt across much of Aceh province, which was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

At least five aftershocks followed the quake, said Erida Wati, local head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

Aceh lies on the northern tip of Sumatra island, which is particularly prone to quakes. In June, a 6.5-magnitude quake struck off the west of Sumatra, damaging scores of buildings and injuring eight people.

A huge undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 triggered a tsunami that engulfed parts of Aceh.

The tsunami killed more than 170,000 people in Indonesia and tens of thousands more in other countries around the Indian Ocean.

(Agencies)

(AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

by Al Bawaba

Saudi Arabia is infamous for cracking down on journalists and media freedom. But the latest controversy over press control has raised eyebrows after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was banned from writing in newspapers after making disparaging remarks about US President-elect Donald Trump.

After Khashoggi voiced criticism of Trump at a Washington think-tank on 10 November, an official Saudi source was cited by the Saudi News Agency as saying that Khashoggi did not represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in his interviews or statements.

Khashoggi had suggested that Trump’s Middle East stance was often contradictory, especially regarding Iran. While Trump is vocally anti-Iranian, he supports President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian conflict. This ultimately bolsters Iranian regional control, making Iran’s long-standing emeny, Saudi Arabia, nervous, Khashoggi was reported as saying.

However, the Saudi government did not react well to the critique of the future US president and was quick to distance themselves from the statement: “The author Jamal Khashoggi does not represent the government of Saudi Arabia or its positions at any level,” said a ministry source quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.

Alongside this, Saudi authorities banned the journalist from writing in newspapers, appearing on TV and attending conferences. However, the decision has provoked backlash, with many taking to Twitter to condemn the muzzling of Kashoggi:

جمال خاشقجي تتفق أو تختلف معه قامة صحفية كبيرة وقرار منعه من الظهور الإعلامي والكتابي خطأ ..ورأيت أكثر الفرحين بالقرار المستعربون الإيرانيون

— موسى العمر (@MousaAlomar) November 27, 2016

Jamal Khashoggi, agree or disagree with him, he is a great journalist and the decision to ban him from media appearances or writing is wrong… The people who are happiest with the decision are Iranians who speak Arabic.

أنت فين يا جمال؟ @JKhashoggi إسكات الأصوات الحرة لن يغيبها أو يغيب الحقيقة

— Amr Hamzawy (@HamzawyAmr) December 4, 2016

Where are you Jamal? @JKhashoggi Silencing the voices of freedom will not make them go away or make the truth go away.

Khashoggi is a well-established Saudi writer and journalist. He has extensive political and media experience and has held the position of editor in chief of a number of Saudi newspapers, including the Arab Times and Al-Watan.

It is unclear why Saudi authorities reacted so harshly to Khashoggi’s comments on Trump.

Saudi Arabia and America have historically close ties, although these were strained during President Barack Obama’s presidency due to disagreements over policy. The election of Trump has generally pleased the Kingdom, as they see his conservative, Republican views as more in line with their own.

However, Trump has previously made threats to cut off US oil purchases from Saudi Arabia, striking fear into the hearts of Saudi oil companies. With Trump’s foreign policy approach unclear, it appears the Saudis are making every attempt to appease the new President and maintain their powerful alliance with the US.

Monitoring group says air strikes hit several places across Syrian province, killing at least 73 people.

Eighteen people were killed in Maarat al-Numan, the Syrian Observatory said [AFP]

At least 73 people have been killed in suspected Russian air strikes on several areas of Idlib province in northwest Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as government forces advanced in fierce clashes with rebels in east Aleppo.

The Britain-based monitor said on Sunday at least three locations were bombed in the northwestern province and most of the casualties were civilians.

At least 26 people, including three children, were killed in the town of Kafr Nabl, and another 38 people were killed in the town of Maarat al-Numan.

A witness told AFP news agency “six strikes hit houses and a crowded local market” in the village of Kafr Nabl.

In Maarat al-Numan, an AFP photographer saw local residents and White Helmets rescue workers trying to reach survivors in the rubble at a vegetable market hit in the strike.

The monitor also reported two additional deaths, one in an earlier strike on Maarat al-Numan and another in al-Naqir, also in Idlib.

And it said six civilians, five of them children, had been killed in a government barrel bomb attack on the town of al-Tamanah in the south of Idlib.

Russia began a military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad in September last year, saying it was carrying out strikes against “terrorists”.

In November, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian forces had begun a “major operation” targeting Idlib and Homs provinces.

The northern Idlib province is mostly controlled by a powerful rebel alliance known as the Army of Conquest.

Most of Homs province is controlled by the Syrian government, but small parts of the countryside are controlled by a range of rebel groups.

More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests before spiralling into a bloody civil war.

Meanwhile, government forces advanced against rebels in east Aleppo, taking two small neighbourhoods and pushing into a third, state media said.

The army and allied forces are nearly three weeks into an operation to recapture all of Syria’s second city, divided between regime and rebel forces since 2012.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the offensive, which has made steady gains and threatens to deal Syria’s opposition its worst defeat of the country’s five-year civil war.

State television said on Sunday evening that the army had captured the districts of Karm al-Tahan and Myessar and advanced into the Qadi Askar neighbourhood.

State news agency SANA said the air force was dropping leaflets over rebel-held areas urging “militants to abandon their weapons and… allow civilians and the sick and wounded to leave”.

At least 311 civilians, including 42 children, have been killed in east Aleppo since the government began its assault, according to the Observatory.

Syrian army spokesman Brigadier General Samir Suleiman said the military had regained control of 45 to 50 percent of east Aleppo, and he accused rebels of hiding among civilians.

Qamar Javed Bajwa takes control of army as tensions escalate with arch-rival India and Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s army is the world’s sixth largest in terms of active military personnel [EPA]

The new head of Pakistan’s military took command of the country’s armed forces on Tuesday amid rising tensions with India over disputed Kashmir and as ties with Afghanistan remain rocky.

General Qamar Javed Bajwa was installed at a ceremony in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, replacing General Raheel Sharif, who stepped down after completing his three-year term.

In his first comments after assuming charge of the country’s army, Bajwa called for a resolution of the Kashmir dispute for the sake of regional stability.

But he also warned that any miscalculation on the part of India could be dangerous.

“I want to make it clear to India that taking our policy of constraint and patience as any sign of weakness will prove dangerous for itself,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said General Bajwa has inherited a complex set of problems with intensified ceasefire violations along the LoC, the de facto border dividing Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and tensions with Kabul.

“He is going to be very focused on what is happening on the LoC, and that he also has to deal with what is happening on the country’s western frontier with Afghanistan,” our correspondent said.

Bajwa was fourth in seniority on a list of five army generals sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and had been little discussed before he was selected.

According to the constitution, the prime minister can pick any officer from the list forwarded to him by the Defense Ministry.

Observers believe Bajwa will offer further support to Sharif’s efforts to improve ties with Pakistan’s neighbours, including Afghanistan and India.

Pakistan’s relations with Kabul have soured amid allegations from Afghan officials that Islamabad is sheltering the Taliban, who have intensified attacks against the government of President Ashraf Ghani.

Bajwa, who was commissioned in the 16 Baloch Regiment in October 1980, is a graduate of the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College in Canada, and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Eight boats carrying Rohingya refugees have been turned away by Bangladesh as thousands amass on the border.

Mass protests by opposition groups and religious movements have called on Bangladesh to accept Rohingya [Abir Abdullah/EPA]

Multiple boats packed with Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar have been turned back by Bangladesh border guards despite appeals by the country’s opposition to provide shelter to the persecuted Muslim minority.