{"id":348,"date":"2016-12-16T04:23:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T04:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=348"},"modified":"2016-12-16T04:23:25","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T04:23:25","slug":"kerry-assad-regime-attacks-in-aleppo-nothing-short-of-a-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2016\/12\/16\/kerry-assad-regime-attacks-in-aleppo-nothing-short-of-a-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry: Assad regime attacks in Aleppo \u2018nothing short of a massacre\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON\/ALEPPO: US Secretary of State John Kerry accused the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad of carrying out \u201cnothing short of a massacre\u201d in Aleppo, where thousands were evacuated on Thursday from the last opposition bastion in a city besieged for years.
\nKerry, speaking at a news briefing, said the United States was seeking an immediate, verifiable, and durable cessation of hostilities in Aleppo, and said it appeared that airstrikes and shelling had stopped and that convoys were moving out.
\n\u201cThere is absolutely no justification whatsoever for the indiscriminate and savage brutality against civilians shown by the regime and by its Russian and Iranian allies over the past few weeks, or indeed over the past five years,\u201d Kerry said. \u201cWe are seeing the unleashing of a sectarian passion.\u201d
\nHe added: \u201cThe Assad regime is actually carrying out nothing short of a massacre.\u201d
\nThe evacuation began with a convoy of ambulances and buses crossing into a regime-held district in southern Aleppo around 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT).
\nA regime source said that 951 evacuees, including 108 wounded, were in the convoy. Most were civilians but about 200 opposition fighters were among them, the source said.
\nThe vehicles arrived just over an hour later in opposition territory about 5 km west of the city, and they followed by a second convoy of 15 buses, state media and a doctor at the scene said.
\nThe evacuees spent hours gathering earlier at a staging area in Aleppo\u2019s southern Al-Amiriyah district.
\nA journalist saw people piling onto the green buses, filling seats and even sitting on the floor, with some worried there would not be another chance to evacuate.
\nMany were in tears and some hesitated to board, afraid they would end up in the hands of regime forces. On the dusty window of one of the buses someone had written \u201cOne day we will return.\u201d
\nEach bus carried a member of the Syrian Red Crescent wearing the organization\u2019s red uniform, riding at the front next to the driver.
\nUN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said some 50,000 people remained in east Aleppo with about 10,000, including fighters, likely to be evacuated to Idlib.
\n\u201cWithout a political agreement or cease-fire, Idlib will be the next Aleppo,\u201d de Mistura said, speaking at a news conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault in Paris.
\nBritish Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he had summoned the ambassadors of Russia and Iran to convey his \u201cprofound disquiet\u201d over events Aleppo.
\nJohnson expressed concern at reports of executions, ambulances being shot at and \u201cdisappearances\u201d of opponents by pro-regime forces.
\n\u201cBoth Russia and Iran have failed to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law, specifically by failing to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians during the months when eastern Aleppo was besieged,\u201d Johnson said in a statement. \u201cThey deserve no credit for the fact that an evacuation appears to be underway today,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cHaving inflicted such suffering on the people of eastern Aleppo, Iran and Russia cannot expect praise for allowing some people to escape at the final hour.\u201d
\nHe said the Russian and Iranian governments were prolonging the suffering of the Syrian people through their support for the Syrian regime.
\nThe UN Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Friday to discuss the crisis. France requested the urgent consultations, set for around midday (1700 GMT), to push for international observers to be sent to the city to monitor the situation and ensure deliveries of humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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WASHINGTON\/ALEPPO: US Secretary of State John Kerry accused the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad of carrying out \u201cnothing short of a massacre\u201d in Aleppo, where thousands were evacuated on Thursday from the last opposition bastion in a city besieged for years. Kerry, speaking at a news briefing, said the United States was seeking an immediate, verifiable, and durable cessation of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}