THE evacuation of the last opposition-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo was suspended on Friday after pro-government militias demanded that wounded people should also be brought out of two Shi’ite villages being besieged by rebel fighters. The second day of the operation to take fighters and civilians out of Aleppo’s rebel enclave ground to a halt amid recriminations from all sides after a morning that had seen the pace of the operation pick up.
Aleppo had been divided between government and rebel areas in the nearly six-year old civil war, but a lightning advance by the Assad regime made possible with the direct help of Russia and Iran in mid-November deprived the insurgents of most of their territory in a matter of weeks. Russia said the Syrian army had established control over all districts of Eastern Aleppo, although government troops were controlling isolated areas where rebel fighters continued to resist.
Rebel sources said pro-government Shi’ite militias had opened fire on a convoy carrying evacuees from east Aleppo and robbing them. A Syrian military source denied the accusations but said the convoy was turned back. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitoring group, said a group of ambulances and cars containing hundreds of civilians and fighters were stopped by pro-government gunmen at a checkpoint south-west of Aleppo. They later returned to the enclave.
Rebels in Eastern Aleppo went on high alert after pro-government forces prevented civilians from leaving and deployed heavy weaponry on the road out of the area, a Syrian rebel commander in the city said. A Syrian official source said the evacuation was halted because rebels had sought to take out people they had abducted with them, and they had also tried to take weapons hidden in bags. This was denied by Aleppo-based rebel groups.
Even with victory for Assad in Aleppo, the war will still be far from over. Insurgents retain their rural stronghold of Idlib province, and the jihadist Islamic State group holds swathes of the East and recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra this week. So retaking Aleppo will be only one step for the Syrian government.
But meanwhile the humanitarian crisis which is unfolding in Aleppo will have no bounds – it is literally hell on earth. Syria is already into the sixth year of the civil war, the oppression of the Syrian people continues and there is no permanent viable solution. With the major help of Russia, Iran has disgraced itself by providing financial and other supports in killing the Muslims in Syria. Iran should have denounced Assad – the Satan incarnate. Syrians are dying but the West proved dead.
Aleppo had been divided between government and rebel areas in the nearly six-year old civil war, but a lightning advance by the Assad regime made possible with the direct help of Russia and Iran in mid-November deprived the insurgents of most of their territory in a matter of weeks. Russia said the Syrian army had established control over all districts of Eastern Aleppo, although government troops were controlling isolated areas where rebel fighters continued to resist.
Rebel sources said pro-government Shi’ite militias had opened fire on a convoy carrying evacuees from east Aleppo and robbing them. A Syrian military source denied the accusations but said the convoy was turned back. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitoring group, said a group of ambulances and cars containing hundreds of civilians and fighters were stopped by pro-government gunmen at a checkpoint south-west of Aleppo. They later returned to the enclave.
Rebels in Eastern Aleppo went on high alert after pro-government forces prevented civilians from leaving and deployed heavy weaponry on the road out of the area, a Syrian rebel commander in the city said. A Syrian official source said the evacuation was halted because rebels had sought to take out people they had abducted with them, and they had also tried to take weapons hidden in bags. This was denied by Aleppo-based rebel groups.
Even with victory for Assad in Aleppo, the war will still be far from over. Insurgents retain their rural stronghold of Idlib province, and the jihadist Islamic State group holds swathes of the East and recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra this week. So retaking Aleppo will be only one step for the Syrian government.
But meanwhile the humanitarian crisis which is unfolding in Aleppo will have no bounds – it is literally hell on earth. Syria is already into the sixth year of the civil war, the oppression of the Syrian people continues and there is no permanent viable solution. With the major help of Russia, Iran has disgraced itself by providing financial and other supports in killing the Muslims in Syria. Iran should have denounced Assad – the Satan incarnate. Syrians are dying but the West proved dead.
