Smoke rises from reported opposition fire from buildings in an eastern government-held neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on October 20, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)
DAMASCUS, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of 48 people evacuated rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo to government-controlled shelters on Monday, state news agency SANA reported.
The evacuees were civilians from the rebel-held part in eastern Aleppo city, said SANA, adding that the authorities in Aleppo provided them with their needs and transported them to temporary shelters.
The Syrian government in cooperation with Russia repeatedly called on the civilians in rebel-controlled areas in eastern Aleppo to evacuate to government-held areas in western Aleppo, to save them from a wide-scale offensive aiming to dislodge the rebels out of Aleppo.
Last week, a three-day truce, aiming to ease the evacuation of civilians and rebels who want to surrender in exchange for pardon, expired with neither civilians nor rebels evacuated.
The Syrian government accused the rebels of preventing the civilians, around 250,000, from leaving.
Observers believe that Aleppo is going to be the decisive battle ground among the fighting groups, and the winner will be the one dictating its conditions to resolve the crisis, as the province contain all the groups that are supported by regional and international powers, with the civilians paying the price for this proxy war.
