IDLIB, Syria – A new deal to evacuate the remaining civilians and rebel fighters from opposition-held east Aleppo is in the works as both sides of the conflict are trying to resolve their differences regarding the terms of the evacuation.
The new deal is expected to also allow for a limited evacuation of people from the government-held Shiite villages of Foua and Kefraya, which are under siege by rebel forces.
Some 10,000 people were evacuated in several rotations on Thursday and early Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross stated on Saturday, which, along with its Syrian counterpart, facilitated the evacuation. But the evacuation was put on hold midday on Friday, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.
One senior official from the powerful Ahrar al-Sham, a member of the Syrian armed opposition, told the AFP news agency that they are working on simultaneous evacuations in Aleppo and two other places in Syria.
"We are working on a resumption of the operations today," said Al-Farook Abu Bakr, a representative of the hardline Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham, on Saturday.
"There will be evacuations from Foua and Kefraya, as well as Madaya and Zabadani, and all the residents of Aleppo and the fighters will leave."
Al-Manar, a satellite channel for the Lebanese Hezbollah militia fighting in the country in support of the Assad regime, claimed that designated buses for the evacuation of "the humanitarian cases" are being prepared to enter the two villages of Foua and Kefraya Saturday night.
It has not been clear whether the Russian-Turkish brokered agreement to evacuate "fighters and weapons" from Aleppo also included other areas in the country.
The head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, which monitors the civil war, said the Friday evacuation came to a halt because Iran and its allied Shiite militias insisted on including the two Shiite villages in the evacuations.
According to Abdulrahman there are some 20,000 people in the two Shiite villages currently besieged by Syrian rebel fighters.
Damascus, however, blamed the rebels for the suspension of the evacuation, saying they had “breached” the terms of the agreement which allowed armed people to carry only their personal weapons, and not heavy weaponry. It also accused the rebels of attacking the Ramouseh crossing in eastern Aleppo, where the evacuation was happening, and accused the opposition fighters of trying to take "hostages" with them.
The Russian Defence Ministry, which stated on Friday that the evacuation was "complete," said on Saturday that the Russian-backed regime operation to capture Aleppo had proven "unique" as it allowed a "genuine" separation of "radicals" from the moderate opposition, state-run Russia Today reported.
Pro-regime forces have captured nearly all of Aleppo in their recent offensive. Should the evacuation resume, rebel fighters will leave eastern Aleppo for Turkey or other areas in Syria controlled by the rebels, many to Idlib province where the opposition still has a powerful presence.
But Idlib is a frequent target for Russian and Syrian bombs. According to the Syrian Observatory, some 792 people were killed or injured in such bombings in one month alone.
Rudaw visited the Umma Camp in Idlib on Friday, under the control of Ahrar al-Sham, on the Turkish border. It is believed that some of the evacuees may end up in camps like this where both fighters and camp residents have low morale, lost in the six-year civil war that has claimed the lives of half a million people by some estimates.
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