Terrified children cower in cover after sniper shoots at ambulance during evacuation of Aleppo
Sources say the evacuation has been 'suspended due to obstructions'
HARROWING footage shows terrified children being herded into cover after the ambulance they were fleeing war-ravaged Aleppo in came under fire from a sniper.
Aid workers help the sobbing childen get to cover after the gunman opened fire.
The footage, taken by Abo Al Jood, a freelance cameraman for , is just the latest sickening incident in a humanitarian disaster that has shocked the world.
This morning it was reported an explosion and gunfire was heard in Aleppo close to where civilians and rebels are being evacuated.
Evacuations of the eastern side of the city have been suspended by the Syrian government “due to obstructions”.
And Russia has announced its role in the evacuation of civilians from Aleppo is over – but the Syrian army will continue the operation. Moscow is also claiming that all women and children have been taken out of eastern Aleppo and that a final sweep by the Syrian military is underway to clear out the last remaining rebels in the city – though there is no evidence on the ground of this.
The Russian Defence Ministry says more than 3,400 rebel fighters from the “moderate opposition” have laid down their weapons.
The UN and international aid agencies insist there are still people in eastern Aleppo waiting to be evacuated.
A convoy taking evacuees out of eastern Aleppo has started to head back in the direction of the rebel-held enclave, a Reuters witness said on Friday, after the evacuation ground to a halt.
Syrian state television also said more than 40 buses and cars had turned back.
Protestors were reportedly blocking a road out of eastern Aleppo and demanding the evacuation of two Shi’ite pro-government villages – Fouaa and Kefraya, as agreed under the truce.
“If the evacuation of the injured in Kefraya and al-Foua takes place, the operation to evacuate eastern Aleppo will resume immediately,” an official told Reuters.
Syrian state TV says evacuations of civilians and opposition fighters from eastern Aleppo have been suspended after rebels opened fire on a convoy at one of the crossing points of the rebel-held enclave.
But Syrian rebels claim Iran-backed pro-regime fighters were behind the gunfire.
The World Health Organisation says they, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent have been told to leave area of Aleppo where civilians were being evacuated.
Elizabeth Hoff says WHO staffers at the Ramouseh crossing point with the rebel enclave who were assisting in the operation were told “without explanation” to leave the area.
The delicate operation to evacuate remaining civilians and fighters from east Aleppo began on Thursday afternoon and continued through the night.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said around 8,500 people had left the city, going to rebel-held territory in the west of the province.
The army began an operation to recapture all of Aleppo in mid-November, and had overrun more than 90 per cent of the former rebel bastion in the east of the city before the evacuation began.
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