Final evacuees leave eastern Aleppo, Assad regime takes control

The Syrian army has retaken full control of the devastated city of Aleppo, it said on Thursday, as evacuations were completed.

The army announcement came after state television said the last convoy of four buses carrying rebels and civilians had left east Aleppo and arrived in the government-controlled Ramussa district south of the city.

About 4,000 rebel fighters and civilians left the city on Thursday, the last group remaining in the shrunken patch of territory still nominally held by the opposition in the city.

The Syrian army said it had retaken Aleppo entirely and brought a “return of security to Aleppo after its release from terrorism and terrorists, and the departure of those who stayed there.”

The last evacuations bring the total number of people who have left east Aleppo in the last week to a little over 40,000. Their departure came about under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia that teetered on the edge of collapse several times.

A rebel official said the loss was a major blow for the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

"On the political level, this is a great loss," Yasser al-Youssef of the Nureddin al-Zinki rebel group told AFP news agency. "For the revolution, it is a period of retreat and a difficult turning point."

The Assad regime now controls the whole of Aleppo more than four years after it was divided in a rebel offensive.

However, according to the Guardian newspaper, much of the eastern and northern parts of Syria remain outside government control, with recent defeats in places such as Palmyra raising questions about the ability of Assad’s exhausted military and its militia allies to hold on to territory outside key cities.