Call for international community to put a stop to fighting as evacuation of civilians from stricken city blocked by militias

Desperate residents in eastern Aleppo spent another day under intense bombardment on Wednesday and their elation at a possible rescue deal was replaced with horror as attacks on rebel territory resumed and an evacuation deal appeared to unravel in the face of Iranian opposition.

Tens of thousands of civilians trapped without food, water or medicine under a hail of artillery and airstrikes found themselves once again pawns in a geopolitical struggle, with Iranian-backed militia who had spearheaded the ground assault on eastern Aleppo defying a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey to allow residents and opposition fighters under siege to leave the city.

Doctors and other civilians, who hours earlier had expressed optimism that they would be able to evacuate eastern Aleppo, again implored the international community to put a stop to the fighting that had left their homes in ruins and allow them to seek a safe haven elsewhere.

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“We will always remember and never forget how the criminals of the world forced Aleppo’s people to choose between two options, collective death or collective forced displacement, and we chose the lesser of the two crimes,” said one activist in a besieged opposition-held district.

Rebel officials and a source with knowledge of the negotiations indicated that Iranian intransigence had undermined the deal so far, and Iran’s proxies on the ground, some of whom have been accused of carrying out execution-style shootings of civilians, had violated the ceasefire.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, issued a joint statement on Wednesday night urging an end to the ceasefire violations and “reaffirmed their commitment to start the evacuation of civilians and the opposition through safe corridors as soon as possible”.

A senior rebel official said a ceasefire deal for east Aleppo had been reached on Wednesday night and civilians would began evacuating the besieged eastern districts of the city early on Thursday.

Ahmed Qaran Ali, the military spokesman of the Ahrar al Sham rebel group, said the new ceasefire would go into effect on Wednesday night and a first batch of civilians and wounded would leave the following morning.



But it was unclear if Iran, which obstructed the first deal reached on Tuesday, was onboard with the new agreement.

The original ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday by Turkish intelligence and the Russian military. One of the rebel groups, Noureddine al-Zenki, said Iran had imposed conditions the rebels could not actually comply with.

When asked about the specifics of the demands, the group’s spokesman, Yasser al-Youssef, told the Guardian they included a lifting of the siege of Fua and Kefraya, two Shia villages in Idlib province that have been surrounded by rebels for years, as well as deals on prisoners of war, wounded fighters and missing members of Iranian-backed militias.

The evacuation of fighters and civilians to Idlib province had been intended to begin on Wednesday morning, but buses intended to transport them – decorated with posters of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad – returned to their depots empty hours later as the Iranian-backed militias refused to allow the evacuation to proceed.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A bus that had been intended to evacuate people from rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Photograph: Omar Sanadiki/Reuters

“Iran has prepared to invade our besieged areas and has defied Russia’s agreement,” said al-Youssef.



Residents said shells had also fallen on the road on which the evacuations were supposed to take place.

Assad told Russia Today in an interview aired on Wednesday that western powers were seeking a ceasefire in Aleppo to stop the regime advance and save “the terrorists”.

The evacuation of rebel-held eastern Aleppo would, however, mean the opposition would cede the city, the last significant urban stronghold where it maintained an active presence.

Civilians left in the opposition districts have been posting farewell messages on social media as the Iranian-backed militias and forces loyal to Assad rampaged through newly reclaimed neighbourhoods in what the UN described as a “meltdown of humanity”.

Many predicted they would either die once the regime’s forces reached their homes, or would be detained and tortured if they gave themselves up to them.

“Save us, people. Save us, people, world, anyone who has even a bit of humanity,” said one doctor in a voice message from a besieged district. “We beg you, we beg you, the dead and wounded are in the streets and people’s homes have collapsed on top of them. Save us. Save us.”

Another resident said: “We want to leave. We don’t want more massacres, let us leave. What is happening?”

The UN reported on Tuesday that the Iranian-backed militias, including the Iraqi Harakat al-Nujaba, had carried out at least 82 extrajudicial killings, including of women and children who were living in opposition-controlled areas.

Reports of detentions and forced recruitment into the Syrian army have also proliferated in recent days as the regime has advanced through former rebel territory.

Residents said the bombardment on Wednesday, with artillery and airstrikes as well as alleged use of cluster bombs, had resumed at a pace greater even than before the ceasefire deal.



“This is an urgent distress call,” said another doctor, who on Tuesday night had told the Guardian he was saddened to leave Aleppo but happy that civilians would survive.

“Save the besieged districts of Aleppo. Since the early morning, the shelling has targeted all the besieged neighborhoods with all types of weaponry. The dead are in the street, and so are the wounded, and there are no ambulances. Save Aleppo. An urgent distress call to every free person in the world.”

Another nurse, whose father and brother were killed on the same day earlier in the regime’s offensive, pleaded that civilians be spared. “A lot of shells and bombs are falling on us, no one can walk in the streets,” he said in a voice message. “Hundreds of shells and rockets. Please let us stay alive. Please pressure the regime to keep us safe. Please, from Aleppo, the last call.”



He added: “The medical situation is so bad. No ambulances, no cars, it’s a very horrible situation in our neighbourhoods. Please let our scream arrive to the whole world.”

Weeks of immense suffering and violence in eastern Aleppo since the Syrian regime and its allies began a final push into territory that had been in rebel hands since 2012 have left residents in total despair and increasingly angry at the international community for abandoning them to their fate.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the security council late on Tuesday that the Syrian government, along with Russia and Iran, bore responsibility for the deaths of civilians in Aleppo. She accused the three states of putting a noose around civilians in the city, asking: “Are you incapable of shame? … Is there no execution of a child that gets under your skin? Is there literally nothing that shames you?”

Iranian leaders were congratulating themselves on Wednesday for the role they had played in the assault. The chief military adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Aleppo had been “liberated thanks to a coalition between Iran, Syria, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah”.



