Syria: Agreement Reached, Survivors Wait To Evacuate

Turkish and rebel officials announced that an agreement was reached to evacuate civilians and oppositions fighters from the besieged eastern Aleppo. Negotiated between Turkish intelligence and the Russian military, a ceasefire was put into effect at 6pm local time, and it couldn’t have come a moment sooner. The United Nations called what happened on Monday a “meltdown of humanity” where Syrian government forces allegedly rampaged the newly reclaimed districts and carried out extrajudicial killings. But under the terms of this deal, military action is over and evacuations will begin as soon as possible. A rebel group spokesman said the evacuations would begin on Tuesday night, though a Syrian military official predicted Wednesday morning. Both Turkey and Russia will act as guarantors of the agreement, whereby “civilians and moderate rebels with light weapons” will leave Aleppo for Idlib.