Refugee children walk between tents at a camp near the Turkish border in Bab al-Salama, near Azaz, northern Syria. (AFP/Bulent Kilic)

by Al Bawaba

Turkey announced plans to set up a refugee camp inside Syria to host people evacuated from the city of Aleppo. Plans for a camp do not necessarily translate into Turkey closing down borders to sick and wounded Syrians, they will still be allowed access to Turkish hospitals, officials said on Friday.

Camp will be established in one of two promising sites, around 3.5 km inside Syria, have been identified for a camp with the capacity to host up to 80,000 people, two senior officials told Reuters.

The camp will be jointly set up by the Turkish Red Crescent, disaster agency AFAD and IHH. The IHH official said evacuees had so far largely found shelter with relatives in and around Syria’s Idlib province, southwest of Aleppo, but added that work to identify those with nowhere to go was under way.

Turkey is already sheltering around 2.7 million Syrian refugees. An aid official with Syrian NGO Shafak, working on the Aleppo evacuation, said he expected more people to head for the Turkish border as the villages west of Aleppo were now full.

Some arrived on Friday at a clinic in Syria close to the Turkish border gate of Cilvegozu where they were tended to by Turkish aid workers, video footage obtained by Reuters showed.

“We were bombed by a plane,” said one man, his head and arm bandaged, lying on a bed hugging his young son. “All my family were killed and all I have left is him and a daughter,” he said. He had been told his daughter had been brought to Turkey but did not know her condition or whereabouts.

The evacuation of the last opposition-held areas of Aleppo was suspended on Friday after pro-regime militias demanded that wounded people should also be brought out of two Shi’ite Muslim villages being besieged by rebels.

Turkey says that close to 8,000 people – rebels and civilians – have been evacuated under a ceasefire deal it brokered with Russia.

Tens of thousands of people remain in rebel-held parts of Aleppo as Syrian official cites “obstructions” of deal.

The evacuation plan was meant to transfer tens of thousands to rebel-held Idlib [Omar Sanadiki/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A ceasefire agreement to evacuate tens of thousands of fighters and civilians from the remaining rebel-held pockets of eastern Aleppo has been suspended.

Speaking to Reuters news agency on Friday, a Syrian government official overseeing the operation said it was suspended due to “obstructions”.

At the time of the deal’s suspension, the government-run SANA news agency reported that more than 8,000 residents of eastern Aleppo, among them fighters, had been evacuated.

State TV reported that rebel groups were attempting to smuggle prisoners and heavy weapons out with them, violating the evacuation deal.

The Turkish state news agency, meanwhile, said pro-government forces first attacked the convoy. Speaking to Reuters, a rebel commander confirmed the claim.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said talks between the Syrian government and opposition forces would take place soon in Kazakhstan, adding that Turkey would not speak directly to Syrian government officials.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier he was working closely with Turkey to try and start a new series of Syrian peace talks aimed at securing a nationwide ceasefire.

As part of an agreement between Turkey and Russia, tens of thousands of rebels and civilians were supposed to be evacuated from eastern Aleppo to rebel-held Idlib, allowing the Syrian government to take full control of the city after years of fighting.

The operation began on Thursday and was expected to take several days.

The agreement also allowed for the evacuation of thousands of civilians from Kefraya and Fua, two Shia-majority towns besieged by rebel forces.

Rebels allegedly shelled the towns on Friday morning around the same time the evacuation from eastern Aleppo was halted.

Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish side of the Turkey-Syria border, said there were conflicting reports of who started the fighting.

“According to several sources, an Iranian-backed militia blocked a road that the evacuees would be using to reach the Aleppo countryside. It then started firing,” he said.

“According to the reports, they were protesting against this evacuation deal, which would see the villages of Fua and Kefraya evacuated in a similar way east Aleppo was.”

A Turkish official told Turkish news agency Anadolou that Syrian government forces had arrested at least 800 people before the suspension of the agreement.

‘Thousands still waiting’

Zouhir Al Shimale, a journalist in eastern Aleppo, reported that the evacuation had been moving at a snail’s pace.

“People were outside in the street overnight,” he told Al Jazeera on Friday morning, adding that the temperature had dipped below zero degrees Celsius in the city. “Thousands are still waiting out here.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned that action is needed to prevent a potential massacre.

The withdrawal began a month to the day after Syrian government forces launched a major offensive to retake all of Aleppo, and will hand the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory in more than five years of civil war.

The city, Syria’s second largest city and once a key cultural and economic hub, has been divided between government forces and rebels since 2012.

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

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.

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.