Evacuations From Eastern Aleppo Reaching an End

Evacuations from eastern Aleppo were ongoing on Thursday morning with the last groups expected to be evacuated by the end of the week, according to the BBC.

“Large numbers” were still waiting to be evacuated, Ahmed Kara Ali, spokesman for the rebel group Ahrar al-Sham, told Reuters.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said at least 34,000 people had been evacuated from the eastern side of the city. ICRC spokeswoman Ingy Sedky told AFP that “the evacuation will continue for the entire day and night and most probably tomorrow [Friday].”

Once all rebel fighters are evacuated from the city, all of eastern Aleppo will be under full government control, after four years of deadlock between pro-regime and opposition forces.

U.N. to Create Team to Investigate Syria War Crimes

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a Liechtenstein-drafted resolution on Wednesday to investigate potential war crimes and human rights violations since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

The U.N. will create a team to “collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence” to use for potential war crimes and human rights violation cases from the Syrian conflict, according to Al Jazeera. Some 105 countries voted in favor of the resolution, 52 countries abstained from the vote and 15 countries voted against, including China, Iran, Russia and Syria, according to Human Rights Watch.

Liechtenstein’s U.N. Ambassador, Christian Wenaweser, told the General Assembly before the vote: “We have postponed any meaningful action on accountability too often and for too long,” adding that this inaction had given “the signal that committing war crimes and crimes against humanity is a strategy that is condoned and has no consequences.”

A U.N. panel investigating the airstrikes on a humanitarian aid convoy in September made their findings public on Wednesday. The team concluded that it was “highly unlikely” that U.S.-led coalition forces were responsible, leaving only Russian or Syrian forces as possible perpetrators.

Opposition Military Commander Killed In Eastern Ghouta

A military leader with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the former al-Qaida affiliate, was killed in Eastern Ghouta on Thursday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

SOHR reported that Abu Mohammad al-Hout was killed during clashes between the opposition forces and Syrian army and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters. Pro-Hezbollah news outlet Al-Masdar reported that the commander was killed during an attack by the Syrian Arab Army’s 105th Brigade of the Republican Guard.

The attack is part of a larger pro-government operation to seize territory from the various opposition factions in the Damascus suburbs.

In Douma, a besieged town in Eastern Ghouta, “people are facing bombing by every kind of weapon of war … spreading fear in the hearts of civilians in the marketplaces, streets and even mosques,” Abu Khaled, police chief with the local council in Douma, told Al Jazeera.

Recommended Reads:

• BBC: Aleppo Battle: What Next for the Evacuees?
• The New York Times: Hezbollah Is Using U.S.-Made Military Vehicles in Syria, Israel Says
• Muftah: Some Leftists Would Rather Be “Right” Than Principled on Syria
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Syrian Station Radio Alwan Defies War to Continue Broadcasting
• CNN: Residents of Syria’s Shia Villages Tell of Pain and Abandonment