Evacuations from war-torn Aleppo possibly delayed until Thursday

Government forces walk through a neighborhood in Aleppo.
(Image credit: George Ourfalian/AFP/Getty Images)

The evacuation of civilians and rebels from eastern Aleppo was delayed on Wednesday, with an opposition group saying the agreement might not kick in until Thursday.

After two weeks of intense fighting, a ceasefire was brokered by Turkey and Russia on Tuesday, with Russia agreeing to stop bombing Aleppo and the rebels promising to withdraw from the city, effectively returning it to the Syrian government. A witness told Reuters that by dawn Wednesday, there were buses idling at a designated area, but it was not clear when they would start driving into the rebel-held districts. The opposition says Shi'ite militias aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are behind the delay. "What is stopping the agreement presently is Iranian obstinacy," a commander with the Nour al-Din al-Zinki group told Reuters. "But the deal still stands, the ceasefire stands until now."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.