After a successful first day of evacuations in Aleppo on Thursday, Friday saw a return of myriad complications, with disputes stalling the evacuation early in the morning, and rebel gunfire leading the buses to leave the area after that first issue was resolved.
The initial problems were a continuation of Wednesday’s dispute over the evacuation of wounded Shi’ite civilians from a pair of Idlib villages. While a deal was nominally made Wednesday night that would allow this, al-Qaeda forces stopped the village evacuations, and the buses in Aleppo were also stopped while this was again negotiated over.
A few hours later, the buses in Aleppo were again ready to go, though exactly what happened in Idlib is still unclear. Either way, the news the buses were back in service was followed by reports of heavy rebel gunfire in the corridor through which the evacuation was to take place, and witnesses reported explosions. The buses again left the area.
Thousands were successfully evacuated on Thursday, 9,000 by the Syrian government’s reckoning, though some reports said it was only about 6,000. The formal evacuation doesn’t appear to have amounted to much at all on Friday, but a number of civilians who were able to get vehicles of their own continued to flee the last rebel area.
Syrian Arab Red Crescent officials say that once the deal is in place, they intend to evacuate some 15,000 civilians from the Idlib villages, while the estimates in Aleppo are that as many as 50,000 might be evacuated from the last sliver of rebel territory.
I do not know where are they finding these 50,000 in rebel area. Unless they are keeping population in some strategic area to prevent Syrian troops from getting in. These are merciless, psychopaths. The information coming out of those that fled — is something that one cannot associate with the age we live in. There are detailed reports coming out, still just a fraction of what has happened inside the terrorist held areas. But only this small sample tells a horror story of people left years without medical care. The rubbish we were told about hospitals being bombed, the last doctors, etc. — pure fantasy. Hospitals were turned into terrorist centers years ago, and civilians were not treated. People have been left with horrendous injuries to either heal by themselves, or die. There are many people with broken bones that have remained broken, with various injuries that are aggravated by neglect. People were not given food supplied initially by international deliveries, but were hording it, and selling to people at high prices. Most people had no more money to buy anything, and there are many, many cases of emaciated people. There are cases of children being put in jail. Girls sexually abused, and kept in “jail” to die. These are just some stories coming out of field medical facilities that are set up all over the area, and they see hundreds of patients a day for first aid treatment and triage, to be sent to other facilities. How much longer can the story of heroic rebels last? I guess it does not matter. Lying is what comes natural to people like this, as natural as breathing.
They are all talking as if they are going to rule forever. As if there is no new president, and as if no new policies are coming. They are bending many arms to line up the “hacking” issue, and now even accusing Trump of encouraging it.
I smell Nixon tactics in the air.
Please use more paragraphs for readability, but I agree.
At least most people in Aleppo can flee the DAESH now, with a decent chance of escaping on their own.
NPR ground their ax alleging Syrian govt forces were firing and disrupting the evacuation earlier. I suppose it’s silly to hope NPR will even cover Al Qaeda rebels doing the exact same thing they otherwise considered newsworthy yesterday.
I have watched this for the last 20 yo 30 years . the United States has usually supported the most vicious terrorist side . In Afghanistan we supported AlQaida and the Taliban against the Government and Russia . In Yugoslavia we supported the NAZSIs , AlQaida and the KLA against the Orthodox Christians . In Libya and Iraq we again installed ISIS , AlQaida and AlNusra against Saddam and Gaddaffi . So to me it is almost a cerainity that in Syria we would again support the wrong side .