Aleppo Evacuation Resumes: Buses Enter Besieged Syrian City To Take Away Civilians, Rebels

UPDATED: 5:35 p.m. EST — U.N. officials said the evacuations from Aleppo resumed late Sunday after an attack that destroyed six buses to be used in the operation, the BBC reported. The U.N. said at least 350 people have been taken out of government-controlled areas that had been under rebel attack. Thousands reportedly are waiting for transportation.​

UPDATE: 3:50 p.m. EST — Sunday’s Aleppo evacuation was suspended after six buses assigned to the operation were burned by an unidentified group as fears rose the incident would scuttle a wider operation. The buses were to transport 2,000 wounded and sick Syrians from Foua and Kfarya, the Associated Press reported.

Original story:

On Sunday, buses again began entering eastern Aleppo, Syria, under the supervision of the Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to "to bring the remaining terrorists and their families out," state media reported, referring to the rebels, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

ICRC said it hoped to resume evacuation of civilians Sunday from east Aleppo, the last holdout of rebels in the battered Syrian city. Thousands of people have been left in the lurch after the evacuation program fell through Friday, following a disagreement between the rebels and pro-government forces.

"We are getting ready to resume the evacuation of people from eastern Aleppo," ICRC spokeswoman Elodie Schindler told Reuters.

The evacuation will be carried out in two phases under a new agreement reached between the two sides, a rebel representative told AFP Sunday. The primary hurdle of the disagreement was the number of people to be evacuated from two Shiite villages, Fuaa and Kafraya.

"In a first step, half of the people besieged in Aleppo will leave, in parallel with the evacuation of 1,250 people from Fuaa," the rebel representative said on condition of anonymity. "In a second step, 1,250 people from Kafraya will leave in parallel with the evacuation of the remaining people in Aleppo," the representative said.

Another 1,500 people will later leave Fuaa and Kafraya with the same number of people evacuating from Zabadani and Madaya, which are the rebel-held towns besieged by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

On Saturday, ICRC urged rebels and pro-Assad forces to decide on a plan to provide "solid" safety guarantees for those evacuating the ancient city. About 8,000 people had successfully left Aleppo before Friday’s evacuation process was stalled.