Aleppo back in Assad's hands

Final buses of evacuees leave city’s east after years of siege

Syrians evacuated from the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo during the ceasefire arrive at a refugee camp in Rashidin, near Idlib, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016.
Syrians evacuated from the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo during the ceasefire arrive at a refugee camp in Rashidin, near Idlib, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016.

BEIRUT -- The Syrian government took full control of Aleppo on Thursday for the first time in four years after the last opposition fighters and civilians were bused out of war-ravaged eastern districts, sealing the end of the rebellion's most important stronghold.

The evacuations ended a brutal chapter in Syria's nearly six-year civil war, allowing President Bashar Assad to regain full authority over the country's largest city and former commercial powerhouse. It marked his most significant victory since an uprising began in 2011 against his family's four-decade rule.

The announcement was made in an army statement broadcast on Syrian state TV shortly after the last four buses carrying fighters left through the Ramousseh crossing.

"Thanks to the blood of our heroic martyrs, the heroic deeds and sacrifices of our armed forces and the allied forces, and the steadfastness of our people, the General Command of the Army and the Armed Forces announces the return of security and stability to Aleppo," an army general said in the statement.

[TIMELIME: Key events in Aleppo since the start of Syria’s uprising ]

Celebratory gunfire sounded in western Aleppo, with Syrian TV showing uniformed soldiers and civilians shouting "Aleppo, Aleppo!" and "God, Syria and Bashar only!"

"No more east and west, Aleppo is back for all Aleppans," said the Syrian TV correspondent, surrounded by people waving Syrian flags.

Assad's army relied heavily on foreign military support from Russia, Iran and Shiite militias such as Lebanon's Hezbollah to surround the rebel-held area. Months of shelling and airstrikes that killed hundreds of people and reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble finally routed the rebels and pushed residents to leave under an agreement brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran.

Throughout the conflict, Assad has characterized the rebels seeking his ouster as foreign-backed terrorists, and he hailed the retaking of Aleppo as a blow to those forces. He also thanked the international backers who helped.

"Liberating Aleppo from terrorism is a victory not only for Syria, but also for those who really contributed to the fight against terrorism, especially Iran and Russia," Assad said at a meeting with a visiting Iranian delegation, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

For Syria's opposition, it was a defeat that signaled the start of a new struggle to forge a way forward.

Ahmad al-Khatib, an opposition media activist who left the city before the siege, said the fall of Aleppo was a date "we'll never forget and we will never forgive."

"Let the world bear witness that Bashar Assad has killed and displaced and destroyed Aleppo, and he celebrates in his victory over the blood and offspring of Aleppo ... with the agreement of the Arab and Western nations," he posted on Twitter.

The ancient city had been divided into rebel and government parts since 2012, when rebels from the countryside swept in and took hold of eastern districts. That set the stage for more than four years of brutal fighting and government bombardment that laid waste to those neighborhoods.

The army statement said the victory in Aleppo is a "strategic transformation and a turning point in the war on terrorism and a deadly blow to the terrorist project and its supporters."

It was a further incentive to keep fighting to "eradicate terrorism and restore security and stability to every span of the homeland," it added.

Earlier in the day, Assad said his forces' achievements in Aleppo are a "major step on the road to wiping out terrorism" and ending the civil war.

The rebel evacuations were set in motion after a monthslong siege and Russian-backed military campaign. Years of resistance were stamped out in a relentless campaign over the past month that saw hospitals bombed, bodies left unburied and civilians killed by shells as they fled for safety.

The campaign targeted all remaining hospitals, knocking them out of service. Medical and food supplies ran out, and fighters were left demoralized and abandoned by their regional allies.

Under a deal brokered by Russia and Turkey, tens of thousands of residents and fighters began evacuating to opposition-controlled areas in the surrounding countryside, a process that took a week.

More than 35,000 fighters and civilians were bused out, according to the United Nations. The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that more than 4,000 additional fighters were evacuated in private cars, vans and trucks since Wednesday.

Civilians who left their homes in eastern Aleppo were unsure of when -- if ever -- they would return.

Residents reached by phone and messaging apps after arriving in rebel-held areas described cold, disorderly conditions where many were struggling to find shelter.

"People went from one hell to another," said Abdul-Nasser Nadaf, a rebel fighter who had left eastern Aleppo for Idlib province. "We are all tired and the displacement was really tough. The snow and cold made things worse."

Aid workers said they fear that because of the concentration of rebel fighters in Idlib, it is only a matter of time before the government and its allies attack there, endangering civilians.

Almost all of the province is held by rebel groups, including the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida and other extreme Islamist groups.

Information for this article was contributed by Zeina Karam, Philip Issa and Bassem Mroue of The Associated Press and by Ben Hubbard and Hwaida Saad of The New York Times.

A Section on 12/23/2016

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