LIVE: Aleppo evacuations

A key rebel group in negotiations over the evacuation of Aleppo says Russia is failing to rein in its Iranian ally, which it accused of holding up the deal.

Munir al-Sayal, the head of the political wing of the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group involved in negotiations over the deal, said Iran was insisting people be allowed to leave two besieged Shia villages before the Aleppo evacuation could begin. 

Green evacuation buses reportedly headed to the rebel-beseiged Shia villages of Fouah and Kefraya on Saturday morning. But families in Aleppo remained waiting in temperatures close to freezing for evacuations from their district - the last remaining rebel-held pocket in the city – to be restarted.

"Iran and its sectarian proxies are using the humanitarian situation of our people in besieged Aleppo and preventing civilians from leaving until the evacuation of their groups in Fouah and Kefraya," Sayal told Reuters.

Bilal Abdel Karim, the last Western journalist in east Aleppo, has shared his latest video from the ravaged and besieged enclave.

He is standing in the remains of a hospital, and the video shows dried blood coating the walls and patients sleeping on the frozen floors.

Harrowing video emerged online on Friday showing people destined for evacuation fleeing gunfire in eastern Aleppo. Four people were allegedly killed.

Middle East Eye’s contributor Zouhir al-Shimale was at the scene and confirmed what happened.

“In the eastern part of the city, they started shooting people. Around 1,000 people in the street ran and yelled ‘save your lives’. The chaos was pretty unbelievable.”

According to an Al Jazeera report, four people were killed in the gunfire in the besieged districts of Aleppo by pro-Assad soldiers.

"They forced us out of the vehicles, forced us to lay flat on the ground, stripped us of our clothes and then we heard gunfire," a suspect told Al Jazeera.

"When we looked up, we noticed three or four people were killed."

Buses have entered Aleppo ready to evacuate the trapped civilians there, state media reported on Sunday morning.

The report said the buses were being monitored by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which had said it hoped to be able to resume evacuations on Sunday.

Rebels and civilians will reportedly both be evacuated.

Up to 10,000 people are expected to be evacuated if a deal is agreed between the negotiating parties, who reportedly continued talks into Sunday morning.

Footage shot by Turkish news agency TRT World on Sunday morning showed the transfer point in Aleppo, where people will be loaded on to buses, empty.

The Security Council has called another emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Aleppo, according to a report in the Independent. France's ambassador, Francois Delattre, said on Friday that the Security Council will be meeting on how to safely evacuate civilians trapped in the besieged areas of the city.

Only a day after the evacuation of Aleppo residents began, numerous reports emerged that a convoy of at least 800 civilians was taken hostage by pro-Assad militias near Ramoussa on Friday.

“A group of cars carrying hundreds of people out of east Aleppo was stopped by tanks belonging to Shia militias and taken hostage for two hours,” said Seraj Alomar, manager of Boraq news agency and a witness who was on the convoy.

Thousands of people took to the streets across Syrian towns and villages in support of Aleppo on Friday.

Protestors in parts of Idlib, Ghouta and Damascus carried posters calling on all sides of the conflict to facilitate the evacuation of civilians out of eastern Aleppo. 

Four Syrian civilians were reportedly killed by Shia militias when a convoy of 800 people was taken hostage near eastern Aleppo on Friday morning.

"After Iranian militias stopped the convoy outside of eastern Aleppo, they took everyone's personal possessions and killed four young men," a source inside eastern Aleppo told Middle East Eye. 

A Syrian rebel source said Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, had agreed to let injured people out of the besieged Shia villages of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province.

"A convoy leaving Aleppo, carrying about 800 people in private cars and buses, was taken hostage by pro-Assad militias this morning," confirmed a Syrian journalist in east Aleppo on Friday.

The convoy included aid workers and medical teams, said Ahmed Primo in a live stream over Twitter. 

The militias are using the hostages to pressurise the international community into evacuating two villages outside of east Aleppo, as part of the deal.

The Syrian journalist went on to highlight that the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group, formerly known as the Nusra Front, had evacuated east Aleppo during the early hours of Friday.

"With regards to news being circulated that the evacuation of civilians is complete and that those still in Aleppo are extremists, that is untrue."

A Russian statement released earlier on Friday declared that the evacuation operation had been completed.

"All members and leaders of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham left east Aleppo this morning. There remains about 50,000 people who fear for their lives," said Primo.

AFP has confirmed that the last convoy of evacuees who left east Aleppo had returned to the rebel-held area. 

Pro-Hezbollah twitter accounts are reporting that evacuee convoys are being intertercepted and sent back to east Aleppo. 

Video taken earlier today before Syrian government forces began operations against the last rebel-held territories in eastern Aleppo. 

The Syrian army has established control over all districts of eastern Aleppo, Russian news agencies quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying on Friday.

Syrian government troops were suppressing isolated areas where rebel fighters continued to resist, the ministry added.