LIVE: Aleppo evacuations
- Turkish NGO confirms 3,000 evacuated from eastern Aleppo
- Emergency Security Council meeting to negotiate UN observers in Aleppo
- Thousands await evacuation in freezing temperatures
- Civilian and rebels being moved to Idlib and west Aleppo countryside
- Medics in Idlib tell MEE ready to help but heavily under-equipped
Live Updates
The Daily Mirror has used an old video depicting the aftermath of an Assad regime strike in Idlib, 2015, as a new story from Aleppo today.
Social media verification can be difficult, especially in regards to warzones, but the Daily Mirror included the video’s source @99099huda, who quite makes clear with this retweet where and when the video is from:
Local Syrian media outlet Step News agency posted a video of Syrians awaiting evacuation from eastern Aleppo.
The video shows the thousands left waiting behind a line of representatives from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
Turkish NGO IHH reporting that 3,000 people have been evacuated from Aleppo with 51 buses.
5,000 people are travelling in 75 buses out of Aleppo said Ingy Sedky, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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.
More to follow...
The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a motion to deploy monitors to oversee the evacuation of residents from eastern Aleppo.
Moscow agreed to vote for the motion after previously threatening to veto the emergency resolution following intense negotiations between Russia and France.
United Nation observers will now be deployed to parts of eastern Aleppo to oversee and monitor the last remaining evacautions.
More to follow...
MEE's graphics team have produced a brief timeline of UN resolutions vetoed by Russia and China since 2011.
Hundreds are being evacuated from the pro-government villages of Kafraya and Fouah near Idlib after being besieged by rebels for months.
Buses bound for the villages were set alight yesterday by rebel groups which led to the second round of evacuations from eastern Aleppo being halted by the Syrian government.
Evacuation buses reached the villages of Foua and Kefraya on Sunday afternoon, raising hopes that the evacuation of those villages and rebel-held parts of Aleppo could resume soon.
The situation in Foua and Kefraya has been a major sticking point in negotiations over the fate of Aleppo, with the Syrian government demanding that they are evacuated at the same time as the last rebel-held pockets of Aleppo.
Around 1,200 people will be evacuated from the two Shia-majority villages, state media reported, and a similar number will be moved out of east Aleppo if all goes according to plan.
Syrian state television reported on Sunday afternoon that fighters and civilians will be allowed to leave Aleppo in exchange for the successful evacuation of Fouah and Kefraya, which are besieged by rebel forces.
Numerous reports on social have surfaced of evacuees being robbed of their possessions and forced to go back to east Aleppo.
The reports come after the Syrian government stopped all evacuations out of east Aleppo after rebels continued to lay siege on the pro-government villages of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province.
Various social media reports are also indicating that thousands have still not left east Aleppo. Debunking claims made by Russia that all families were evacuated from the last rebel-held districts.
“Russia Today reported that the evacuation is over and the people have left eastern Aleppo. This is not true at all," said Bilal Abdul Kareem, the last remaining foreign journalist in east Aleppo.
"There are thousands upon thousands of men, women and children that are here. The fighters were not allowed to leave. I repeat, they were not allowed to leave nor were their families."
According to Kareem, four rebel fighters have been killed while 20 others have been taken prisoner by Hezbollah.
Good evening,
This is Areeb from the Middle East Eye's London office. Here are the key updates coming out of Aleppo:
- The Syrian government has stopped all evacuations from east Aleppo after rebels continued to besiege pro-government villages near Idlib
- Multiple reports of evacuees being robbed, killed and stopped from leaving Aleppo by Shia militias
- Refugees were forced to head back to east Aleppo
- Rebels agree to two Syrian villages being evacuated
- Thousands remain trapped in east Aleppo despite Russian statement declaring that the evacuation operation had been completed
- Unconfirmed reports of many parts of east Aleppo having no internet connection
Continue to follow the blog for sustained coverage and latest developments coming out of Syria.
US President Barack Obama said on Friday the world is "united in horror" at the fighting in Syria's Aleppo and that President Bashar al-Assad and his allies were responsible for atrocities including reported massacres of civilians.
"Responsibility for this brutality lies in one place alone: with the Assad regime and its allies Russia and Iran. And this blood and these atrocities are on their hands," Obama said at a White House news conference.
Obama also called for an international observer force in Aleppo that would ensure an "orderly evacuation" of civilians.
Protesters gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Washington, DC late on Friday night.
Bilal Abdel Karim, the last Western journalist in east Aleppo, has shared his latest video from the ravaged and besieged enclave.
He is standing in the remains of a hospital, and the video shows dried blood coating the walls and patients sleeping on the frozen floors.