1st LD: 5 buses carrying rebels, families leave eastern Aleppo

Five buses carrying rebels and their families left the last remaining rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo city in northern Syrian on Wednesday, state TV reported.

The buses, part of 60 buses that entered on Tuesday, left toward the rebel-held town of Rashidien in the western countryside of Aleppo, the report said.

The 60 buses entered the remaining rebel-held areas in Aleppo on Tuesday to evacuate the last batch of rebels and their families from the city.

The evacuation is part of a deal concluded recently between Russia and Turkey. It included the evacuation of civilians from the Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa, which are besieged by the rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Nearly 15,000 rebels and their families have so far been evacuated from eastern Aleppo amid ongoing operation to evacuate the rest.

The evacuation of the rebels from Aleppo and the civilians from the Shiite towns is designed to take place simultaneously, which explained the delay in the evacuation process.

The move comes as the Syrian military forces and allied fighters have captured 99 percent of eastern Aleppo, as part of a wide-scale offensive to drive out the militants from the city completely.

With the last evacuation of the rebels from eastern Aleppo, the Syrian army will be on control of the entire city, a victory seen as a new chapter of history, as President Bashar al-Assad recently said. Endit