A member of forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad attempts to erect the Syrian national flag inside the Umayyad mosque
As forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad closed in on the last pocket of rebel-held territory in east Aleppo, Al Jazeera spoke to Bilal Abdul Kareem, the last remaining foreign journalist in the area.
Kareem told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that “nobody was safe” in the enclave and that there was no safe passage out for women, children, the sick and the wounded.
“It’s not indiscriminate shelling because they’re deliberately firing upon people’s homes,” he said. “They’re targeting everyone here.”
“They went on a systemic campaign to destroy all of the medical facilities in east Aleppo, you don’t get more of a civilian type infrastructure than a hospital. They targeted water stations, they targeted court houses, they targeted anything that provides a service to the people.”
Fears have been growing for thousands of trapped civilians as rebel fighters make a desperate last stand in their remaining pocket of territory in their former opposition stronghold.
“Some of the rebel fighters I’ve spoken to have said ‘we’re going to take as many of Assad’s forces with us as we can,’ Kareem added.
When asked about why he and other civilians hadn’t left the city, Kareem said: “People haven’t fled because of the fear of what government forces might do to them. They’ve killed more than half a million people, so that’s got be a major deterrent right there.
“Secondly the territories that the government has taken over, there have been summary executions for everyone with a certain last name because they’ve been known to be fighters. This has been widely reported from people in the Bustan al-Qasr area. How can you trust a regime that used its resources to kill half a million of your countrymen?”
Shortly after his interview, news broke that a deal to evacuate rebel fighters and civilians from the city had been brokered with the Syrian government.
The transfers were set to begin early on Wednesday morning.
Delayed evacuation
However, the evacuation, due to start at dawn, has been delayed, perhaps until Thursday, with an opposition official blaming Shi’ite militias allied to Assad for the hold-up.
A ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally, and Turkey ended years of fighting in the city and has given the Syrian leader his biggest victory yet after more than five years of war.
Officials in the military alliance fighting in support of Assad could not be reached immediately for comment on why the evacuation was delayed.
But rebel sources said the ceasefire remained in place despite the delay in the evacuation plan.
Sources on Tuesday had given different expected start times for the evacuation. A military official in the pro-Assad alliance had said the evacuation was due to start at 5am, while opposition officials had been expecting a first group of wounded people to leave earlier.
However, none had left by dawn, according to a Reuters witness waiting at the agreed point of departure. Twenty buses were waiting there with their engines running but showed no sign of moving into Aleppo’s rebel-held eastern districts.
“There is certainly a delay,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, a war monitor.
Officials with Aleppo-based rebel groups accused Shi’ite militias backed by Iran of obstructing the Russian-brokered deal. The pro-opposition Orient TV cited its correspondent as saying the plan may be delayed until Thursday.
People in eastern Aleppo have been packing their bags and burning personal possessions as they prepare to leave, fearing looting by the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed militia allies when they restore control. – Al Jazeera News and Reuters