Tag: Aleppo

Thousands leave Aleppo under landmark evacuation deal

by Karam al-Masri with Maya Gebeily in Beirut Agence France-Presse ALEPPO, Syria (AFP ) – Thousands of traumatised Syrians left the rebel enclave of Aleppo on Monday under a complex evacuation agreement that will see regime forces exert full control over the battered city. Families had spent hours waiting in below-freezing temperatures, sheltering from the rain in bombed-out apartment blocks and waiting desperately for news on a new wave of departures. The operations resumed on […]

Aleppo evacuation suspended, leaving thousands trapped

by Rim Haddad and Karam al-Masri Agence France Presse ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) – The Syrian government suspended the evacuation of civilians and fighters from the last rebel-held parts of Aleppo on Friday, leaving thousands of people trapped and uncertain of their fate. Russia, which helped to broker the deal with Turkey, said its operation was now “complete” with all women and children moved from the city. Ankara and a Syrian military source said the evacuation […]

Between guilt and outrage, West looks helpless over Aleppo

by Hui Min NEO Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – The fall of Aleppo has unleashed a mixture of outrage and impotence in the West, in which fury at the relentless carnage has mingled with guilt over the failure to stop it. Even the European public — who marched in the millions over the siege of Sarajevo or against the Iraq War — stayed at home as the Russian-backed Syrian regime smashed the country’s […]

50,000 people still trapped in eastern Aleppo: UN envoy

PARIS, France (AFP) — Around 50,000 people, the majority civilians, were still trapped in eastern Aleppo even as an evacuation deal was under way, the UN peace envoy for Syria and French foreign minister said on Thursday. “There are 50,000 people, including 40,000 civilians unfortunate enough to live in that part of the city. The rest are fighters, numbering between 1,500 and 5,000, and their families,” the UN’s Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Paris, […]

Thousands leave Aleppo under rebel withdrawal deal

by Rim Haddad and Karam al-Masri Agence France Presse ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — Thousands of civilians and rebels left Aleppo on Thursday under an evacuation deal that will allow Syria’s regime to take full control of the city after years of fighting. The International Committee of the Red Cross said the operation could take days as US Secretary of State John Kerry warned action was needed to prevent a Srebrenica-style massacre with tens of thousands […]

First evacuations from rebel-held Aleppo

by Rim Haddad with Maya Gebeily in Beirut Agence France Presse ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) – A convoy of ambulances and buses left rebel territory in Aleppo on Thursday in the first evacuations under a deal for opposition fighters to leave the city after years of fighting. The rebel withdrawal will pave the way for President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to reclaim complete control of Syria’s second city, handing the regime its biggest victory in more than five […]

Eiffel Tower turns off lights to call for ceasefire in Aleppo

  PARIS, France (Reuters) — Paris turned off the famed lights of the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday (December 14) as a gesture of solidarity with the citizens of the Syrian city of Aleppo. “This symbolic measure at a building known worldwide will aim to once again alert the international community to the need for urgent action,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a statement. Thousands of people fled the frontlines of fighting in Aleppo on […]

Syria rebels announce new evacuation deal for Aleppo

by Rim Haddad and Karam al-Masri Agence France Presse ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — Syrian rebels announced a new evacuation deal for Aleppo civilians and the injured on Wednesday, after shelling and air strikes sent terrified residents running through the city’s streets. However a source close to Syria’s government denied the development, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said hostilities were ongoing after an earlier agreement collapsed. Under the initial plan, thousands of civilians and […]

Aleppo challenges Obama’s legacy

by Andrew Beatty WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The months-long siege of Aleppo is almost over, but the political postmortem is just beginning and Barack Obama’s role is firmly on the slab. “The United States did have countless opportunities to mitigate and prevent slaughter. But time and again, decent men and women chose to look away. We have all been bystanders to genocide. The crucial question is why.” Those were the words, a decade and […]

Syria rebels to leave Aleppo under evacuation deal

by Rim Haddad Agence France Presse ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — Civilians and rebel fighters were to start evacuating from Syria’s Aleppo Wednesday under a deal that would end years of opposition resistance in the city. The evacuations which were expected to begin at 0300 GMT, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, had yet to commence more than half an hour after the time had passed, an AFP correspondent in the city said. […]

History of Syrian rebel pullouts

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — The agreement reached on Tuesday for Syrian rebels to withdraw from their one-time bastion of east Aleppo is the latest by opposition forces surrounded by government forces. For much of the conflict in Syria, the government has promoted “local reconciliation” deals that have often involved the evacuation from opposition territory of civilians and rebels who have surrendered. The government says such deals are the best way to end the conflict that […]