Convoys of evacuees traveled from a rebel-held area of Aleppo and from two Shi’ite villages besieged by insurgents on Monday after a day-long stand-off, a monitoring group said.
Jan Egeland, who chairs the UN aid task force in Syria, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said.
“Dozens of buses carrying thousands of people from Aleppo’s tiny rebel zone reached insurgent areas of countryside to the west of the city.
“At the same time, 10 buses left the Shi’ite Muslim villages of al-Foua and Kefraya, north of Idlib, for government lines in Aleppo,’’ Egeland said.
The evacuation of civilians, including wounded people, was a condition for the Syrian army and its allies to allow thousands of fighters and civilians trapped in Aleppo to depart.
“Many thousands more are waiting to be evacuated soon,’’ Egeland added.
Syrian state TV and pro-Damascus stations showed the first four buses arriving in Aleppo from the besieged villages, accompanied by pick-up trucks and with people sitting on their roofs.
Later on Monday, the Security Council will vote in New York on a resolution to allow UN staff to monitor the evacuations.
The draft resolution was the result of a compromise between Russia and France and the U.S. said it was expected to pass unanimously.
According to a video posted online on Sunday, some of the buses sent to al-Foua and Kefraya to carry evacuees out were attacked and torched by armed men.
The incident threatened to derail the evacuations, the result of intense negotiations between Russia, the main supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey, which backed some large rebel groups.
They have been waiting for the chance to leave Aleppo since the ceasefire and evacuation deal was agreed late last Tuesday, but has struggled to do so during days of hold-ups.
Report says the weather in Aleppo has been wet and very cold and there is little shelter and few services in the tiny rebel zone. (Reuters/NAN)