LIVE: Aleppo evacuations
- Turkish NGO confirms 3,000 evacuated from eastern Aleppo
- Emergency Security Council meeting to negotiate UN observers in Aleppo
- Thousands await evacuation in freezing temperatures
- Civilian and rebels being moved to Idlib and west Aleppo countryside
- Medics in Idlib tell MEE ready to help but heavily under-equipped
Live Updates
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that 1,150 Syrians had made it safely to the rebel-controlled province of Idlib.
Speaking at a press conference in Ankara with the Slovenian President, Erdogan announced the numbers of Syrians who made it to Idlib as evacuations continue to take place from the rebel-held area.
"So far, 1500 have been evacuated," Huseyin Oruc, vice president of the Turkish NGO the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), told Middle East Eye on Thursday.
According to Uruc, the evacuation of east Aleppo is being handled by IHH, UNOCHA, ICRC and the Syrian Red Crescent.
"Our teams have gone to east Aleppo along with the others to help take the people to Idlib," said Oruc. "Those who are heavily injured have been taken to hospitals."
"We are coordinating with the Turkish Red Crescent to receive them and we have already started setting up tents for them to live in," he said.
The Syrian president hailed the "liberation" of Aleppo and Russia's military declared all militants had been "driven out" of eastern Aleppo, as convoys of ambulances and buses ferried hundreds of rebels and civilians to other areas of Syria.
Bashar al-Assad congratulated Syrians on the "liberation" of Aleppo, saying it was "history in the making and worthy of more than the word 'congratulations'."
"What is happening today is the writing of a history written by every Syrian citizen. The writing did not start today, it started six years ago when the crisis and war started against Syria," Assad said.
Aid workers based in Idlib have confirmed that doctors are ready to help the critically wounded in east Aleppo but are heavily under-equipped.
British Doctor Shajul Islam in a Facebook post posted online described how despite preparing to welcome the critically injured patients the makeshift hospitals lacked basic equipment.
"None of these beds have any patient monitoring equipment. They are just beds. We have nothing," he said.
Multiple reports have emerged of residents in eastern Aleppo burning their possessions to prevent Syrian government forces and militias loyal to them from looting their possessions.
Muhammed Al-Ghazi, a freelance journalist, posted this video to show a building which had smoke billowing from it as its occupants burnt all their possession.
Reports in other media outlets also show residents burning their possessions to ensure the government forces are unable to loot or take anything of value.
According to Halab Today, the first evacuees from east Aleppo have arrived in the government-held west of the city.
Soumaya Ghannouchi, a political analyst and expert on Middle East politics, writes that a political compromise must be reached between the Russians, Iranians, Turks and the Gulf to resolve the Syrian crisis. She writes:
"There is no heroism, honour, or indeed victory in wars between fellow countrymen and women. Assad cannot exterminate the military opposition, no matter how many battles he wins, nor can the opposition realistically hope to topple him with the strong alliances he has managed to forge.
The only way out of the bottomless pit of death and devastation is through a political compromise backed by the main powers involved, that is, the Russians, Iranians, Turks and the Gulf. Only then can we hope to salvage what remains of Syria."
Bilal Abdul Kareem, a US journalist who has been trapped in eastern Aleppo for the past four months, has described how he was forced to run for his life shortly after recording an interview with Middle East Eye on Wednesday.
“Right after I finished talking to you guys they just lit our place up with artillery fire,” said Kareem.
“It got so bad that we thought they were going to bring the building down. That’s how many hits it took. So we ran to another location and as we were running munitions were going off around us. It was just like TV except there were no cameras and there was no makeup but that was how it was and it was really an intense experience.”
Kareem said the situation was “looking better” on Thursday as buses carrying injured civilians departed from the besieged area for rebel-held Idlib province as a ceasefire appeared to be holding.
In a video posted on Twitter, he said that birds are chirping and people are leaving besieged Aleppo and I hope I will be doing the same thing.
But he added: "Nothing is said and done until it is said and done."
Explosions could be heard in the background as Kareem spoke to MEE on Wednesday. Watch the full video below.
East Aleppo resident and MEE contributor Zouhir al-Shimale's latest update on the evacuation of severly injured civilians from besieged neighbourhoods.
At least 951 people left eastern Aleppo in first convoy, reported Reuters on Thursday.
Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri hailed the "victory" of fighters in Syria and Iraq, in a statement to the Tasnim news agency.
He warned regional backers of “terrorists” to end their support and distance themselves from American and "international Zionist policies".
He warned America to learn a lesson from the "liberation" of Aleppo and to withdraw from the region.
