Tens of thousands of people, mainly civilians, remained trapped in what is left of east Aleppo last night after another hold-up in the deal intended to ensure the rebel-held areas surrender to regime forces.
In return for their evacuation, it was agreed with Iran that sick and injured people from two Shia towns besieged by rebels would also be ferried to safety. But the buses sent to Fua and Kefraya were attacked by an Islamist mob and six of them set on fire, with the arsonists said to be members of Jund al-Aqsa, an ultra-militant offshoot of al-Qaeda.
Fighters from the Fateh al-Sham Front, another al-Qaeda offshoot, were allowed to leave the city last week and are believed to have travelled to Idlib, where they will bolster the jihadists and could be used as a pretext for regime bombardment.
President Putin of Russia and President Erdogan of Turkey spoke last night about continuing the evacuations and reports last night said that five buses had made it out of east Aleppo.
Russia and France announced they had reached a compromise on a draft UN resolution to put monitors into Aleppo. The security council will vote on the resolution today. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, said more than 100 monitors would go to Aleppo to deter “some of the worst excesses”.
