Evacuation of eastern Aleppo complete, Syrian media and watchdog say

DAMASCUS, Syria – The evacuation of the last rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo was completed on Thursday, Syrian government media and the watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday.

The United Nations had earlier said that the evacuation was entering its final phase.

The move clears the way for Syrian government forces to regain full control of the devastated city.

The operation to bring rebels, civilians and medical patients out of Syria’s largest city had started a week earlier.

Rebel defenses in eastern Aleppo, their last foothold in a major urban center, collapsed in late November after a five-month siege by government forces aided by Russian military power.

More than 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Syria’s civil war that started with peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011.

U.N. envoy Jan Egeland told a news conference in Geneva that around 40,000 people will have left eastern Aleppo on well over 200 buses.

In addition, the evacuation of the two pro-regime villages of Foua and Kefraya in the northwestern province of Idlib is also almost complete, Egeland said.

The masses from eastern Aleppo are now joining the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who are already in opposition-controlled rural areas of Aleppo province and Idlib.

“It’s a race against the clock and against the winter to provide shelter, warmth and relief to people who are sick, exhausted and malnourished from five years of war,” Egeland said.

The evacuation will give the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad full control over Aleppo, which has been divided between the regime and rebels since 2012.

Assad said Thursday that “liberating” Aleppo also marks a victory for his key allies Russia and Iran.

“Liberating Aleppo from terrorism is not only a victory for Syria, but for everyone who is making an actual contribution to combatting terrorism especially Iran and Russia,” Assad said.

“At the same time, it is a setback to all countries hostile to the Syrian people,” he added at talks in Damascus with Iranian Foreign Ministry official Jaber Ansari, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.

The fall of Aleppo deals a heavy blow to the opposition that has been fighting to oust Assad.

In September 2015, Russia started an air campaign in Syria in support of Assad, reversing earlier military losses suffered by his overstretched troops.