Aleppo resumes evacuation of civilians

Residents gathered near green government buses as they hold their belongings for evacuation from eastern Aleppo, Syria, in this Dec. 15 photo. (AP).

BEIRUT — A fragile cease-fire was back on in Syria on Monday, as buses resumed evacuating those still remaining in eastern Aleppo following days of delays and others departed with the sick and wounded from two rebel-besieged Shiite villages in the country’s north.

At the United Nations, the Security Council was expected to vote within hours on a resolution seeking to deploy UN monitors to Aleppo immediately in order to prevent what France has warned could be “mass atrocities” by Syrian forces and allied pro-government militias as they assume control of all of the rebel enclave.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said that 10 buses left with civilians from the two Shiite villages long besieged by rebels — Foua and Kfarya — and were on their way to government-controlled areas on Monday.

According to the deal, more than 2,000 sick and wounded are supposed to leave the villages. The Observatory and the pan-Arab TV said 15 additional buses entered the two villages to bring out more people.

The evacuations from the villages were added on as conditions to a Turkey- and Russia-brokered cease-fire deal that paved way for the last rebels and civilians to leave the remainder of the rebel enclave in the eastern half of Aleppo.

The departure from the villages had stalled on Sunday after militants burned six empty buses assigned to take the villagers out.

On the Aleppo front, the Observatory reported shortly before midnight Sunday that government forces have allowed five buses to leave from the last sliver of rebel territory in the east of the city.

Al-Mayadeen aired live footage from Aleppo, showing buses it said were carrying opposition fighters and civilians heading west, toward rebel-held parts of the Aleppo province.