At least 40 vehicles transport 950 civilians out of the eastern part of the war-torn Syrian city.

The ceasefire is expected to last for three days in order to carry out the evacuation [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

The evacuation of the eastern part of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo has begun with ambulances and buses carrying the wounded and sick leaving the rebel-held territory in the city under a fragile exit deal.

A slow-moving convoy of around two dozen vehicles snaked out of Al-Amiriyah district and crossed into government-held Ramussa en route to rebel-held territory in the west of Aleppo province.

However, Ibrahim Abu Allaith of the Syrian Civil Defence told Al Jazeera that militias loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reportedly killed at least one person and injured four more while firing on the convoy of injured evacuees.

AFP news agency reported that the first batch of convoy was led by vehicles from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, followed by ambulances and then green government buses.

ICRC spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said the first convoy included 13 ambulances and 20 buses carrying civilians. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a total of 21 buses and 19 ambulanes had left east Aleppo.

“They have crossed the front line and are on their way to rural parts of western Aleppo,” Sedky told AFP.

The evacuation on Thursday was part of a ceasefire expected to last three days and result in the transfer of thousands of civilians and fighters from the embattled territory.

Zouhir Al Shimale, an independent journalist in east Aleppo, said the evacuation was still under way despite the attacks on an ambulance.

“There hasn’t been fighting since the morning,” he told Al Jazeera, explaining that “hundreds of families” have gathered at the departure point for the buses.

“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,” Shimale added.

“In recent days, people are desperate to get to somewhere where we have the supplies – food, medicine, fuel – like we used to have in the days before the siege. Even if they are in refugee camps, but people still want to leave the besieged area.”

As part of the agreement, the Russian defence ministry said that it was preparing for the transfer of rebel fighters by buses and ambulances to Idlib city, located around 65 kilometres from Aleppo.

Deadly fighting broke out on Wednesday after a similar truce deal collapsed.

Under the initial plan, thousands of civilians and rebel fighters were due to evacuate the east of Syria’s second city, scene of some of the worst violence in more than five years of war across the country.

The delay came on Wednesday morning when pro-government Shia militias demanded that civilians in Kafraya and al-Fua – two towns besieged by armed opposition groups – be evacuated, as well.

Thursday’s agreement allowed for the evacuation of wounded civilians from Kafraya and Fua, and ambulances were reportedly en route to the two towns by noon local time (10:00 GMT).

Turkey said it would meet with Russia and Iran in Moscow on December 27 to discuss a political solution to the conflict in Syria.

Syria’s army has pressed a month-long assault that has seen it take more than 90 percent of the former rebel stronghold in east Aleppo.

Turkey has said those leaving would be taken to Idlib province, which is controlled by a powerful rebel alliance that includes Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

The UN said on Tuesday that it had credible reports of at least 82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children, being executed in recent days.

And the UN’s Commission of Inquiry for Syria said it had received reports opposition fighters were blocking civilians from fleeing Aleppo and using them as human shields.

Aleppo, a cultural and economic hub second only to Damascus in importance, had been split between a rebel-controlled east and government-held west since 2012.

It was unclear how many civilians remained in rebel territory, after an estimated 130,000 fled to other parts of Aleppo during the government advance since mid-November.

Syria’s conflict has evolved from largely unarmed protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into a full-scale civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than half of the country’s prewar population.

Marwan Kabalan, a Syria analyst and associate political analyst at the Doha Institute, said he expects the Syrian government to focus its attacks on the Damascus suburbs after the fall of Aleppo.

“I think the regime will turn next to targeting the Damascus suburbs,” he told Al Jazeera. “Idlib is becoming a point of exile for fighters … I think it will remain like this till the very end [of the conflict].”

Throughout four years of fighting, Aleppo has seen intense battles that left much of the city in ruins.

AlHakam Shaar, a research fellow at the Budapest-based Aleppo Project, an initiative that tracks the destruction in the historic city, explained that more than 20 percent of Aleppo’s buildings were fully destroyed and another 40 percent partially damaged as far back as early 2014.

“The percentages are far higher now. However, there is no way to accurately measure the extent of destruction without a full on the ground survey,” he told Al Jazeera.

“There will also be a need for planning the rehabilitation of whole systems of infrastructure, from roads to water networks.”

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.