Hours after a planned evacuation of people from bombarded areas of eastern Aleppo, no one has left, according to a monitoring group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said in a statement that several buses remained idle in neighborhoods of the stricken city, over two hours after the evacuation was due to commence.
The first group of civilians scheduled to leave is supposed to consist of 70 injured people and family members — a total of 150 people.
Rebel fighters were also offered safe passage out of the devastated city under a ceasefire deal brokered largely by Turkey.
CNN affiliate ITN, who has a reporter on the ground, has also posted on social media that no buses have left.
An ICRC official in Aleppo told CNN that the organization “is ready to help the parties to this agreement in overseeing the evacuation of civilians.”
He added that they are “on standby” in case a request is made to support in the evacuation.
Latest developments
Planned evacuation of neighborhoods delayed
Lull in bombing reported after ceasefire agreed
Families, rebels offered safe passage out of the city
Russia: Syrian regime establishes control over eastern Aleppo
‘Are you truly incapable of shame?’
Activists said anyone with links to the rebels who seized control of neighborhoods in 2012 was being hunted down.
“Every hour, butcheries are carried out,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday.
Speaking at a UN Security Council Emergency Briefing on Syria, US ambassador Samantha Power had some scathing words for her Syrian, Iranian and Russian counterparts.
“You bear responsibility for these atrocities,” she said of the plight of eastern Aleppo residents amid reports of widespread summary executions, including of women and children, by Syrian forces in formerly rebel-held areas.
“When one day there is a full accounting of the horrors committed in this assault of Aleppo — and that day will come, sooner or later — you will not be able to say you did not know what was happening.”
The Syrian government did not comment on the killings in state-run media. CNN has not been able to verify the execution reports.
She said the actions of the three players “should shame” them.
“Three Member States of the UN contributing to a noose around civilians. It should shame you. Instead, by all appearances, it is emboldening you… Are you truly incapable of shame?”
Ban: No way to verify numbers
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said reports suggested that thousands of people remain in the city. However, he added the Syrian government had denied the UN access to independently verify the numbers.
“However, this does not mean that the reports that we are receiving are not credible,” he said.
Ban said that the Russian Defense Ministry had reported that it had helped as many as 100,000 civilians to leave eastern Aleppo neighborhoods, including 40,484 children.
The ministry also claimed that it had supplied 78 tons of humanitarian assistance to displaced people, he said.
After the meeting, Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Syria, said he was informed by the Russian ambassador that an agreement on Aleppo was reached, but that the UN still needs to verify the deal.
“(The agreement) is imminent, if not already taking place,” he said. “It’s not clear to me yet as whether they are allowed to withdraw with their light weapons, which was one of the issues which had been discussed, or without weapons.”
Russian diplomat: Regime in control
Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council Tuesday that the Syrian government has established control over eastern Aleppo.
“Over the last hour we’ve received information that the military activities in east Aleppo have stopped,” Churkin said.
Aleppo Media Center posted to its Facebook page on Tuesday that a ceasefire had been announced in the city “in preparation for the evacuation of civilians from besieged areas through safe passages.”
The ceasefire and evacuation agreement was reached with “Turkish mediation,” a commander in the Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham told CNN.
Hospital director: People can’t even bury the dead
Al-Quds Hospital Director Dr. Hamza al-Khatib told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the regime has committed “a lot of executions.” Even children get slaughtered, he said — especially if they come from families that have opposed Assad’s government.
“People are scared to go out in the street. Dead bodies haven’t been taken to the graveyard to be buried,” he said.
“A lot of people are scared to go to graveyards to bury their own family members. A lot of dead bodies are in front of the hospital. And no one can come here to take them to get buried.”
He said that for some, even death is more welcome than life under Assad rule.
“A lot of neighborhoods have fallen down, and now it’s under the regime control,” he said Tuesday. “Now we only have left six neighborhoods. We are very afraid that all of us may be arrested or killed. Actually, most of the people wish that they may be killed (by) shelling rather than being arrested and captured and Assad (is) president.”
Turkey’s involvement
The Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that talks between rebels in eastern Aleppo and the Russian military led to the ceasefire deal. Under the agreement, civilians and then opposition fighters will evacuate to nearby Idlib, the ministry said.
There has been no confirmation of a cessation of hostilities or an evacuation agreement by Syrian state media.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday to address the situation.
Long occupation over?
Rebel groups held eastern Aleppo for more than four years after the Arab Spring uprising and a Syrian regime siege on the area had essentially cut it off from the outside world, sparking a humanitarian crisis there.
Thousands were fleeing Monday as bombs continued to fall on the remaining rebel-held areas of the city.
The Assad regime was already in control of western Aleppo and in just over two weeks has taken most if not all of the east. Seizing the whole of Aleppo would put the government in control of Syria’s five major cities, marking a turning point in the war.
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