25,000 people evacuated

Syria's army yesterday urged the last remaining rebels and civilians to leave the bombed-out eastern quarters of Aleppo as it prepares to take full control of the devastated city.

The evacuation of east Aleppo is seen as a pivotal moment in the nearly six-year war that has killed more than 310,000 people and triggered a major humanitarian and refugee crisis.

At least 25,000 people have left rebel districts of east Aleppo since evacuations began last week, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is overseeing the

operation.

Thousands more were still waiting to be bused out, spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said.

She said that 750 people had been evacuated in parallel from Fuaa and Kafraya, two Shia-majority villages in northwest Syria besieged by rebels, as part of the deal.

In east Aleppo yesterday, soldiers using megaphones called on the remaining fighters and civilians to exit the opposition districts, a military source told AFP.

"The army is expected to enter (Aleppo) to clean the area after the fighters leave," the source said.

Buses and ambulances have been bringing rebels and civilians on a tense journey from Aleppo's battered east into government-held neighbourhoods, and back into rebel-held territory west of the city.

Thousands of people -- mostly women and children -- squeeze onto buses with whatever belongings they can carry, many in tears and others shivering in the cold, according to AFP correspondents who made the trip.

The UN Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a French-drafted resolution with the backing of Russia to monitor the evacuations from Aleppo.

Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, accused Western powers of scrambling to send observers to east Aleppo to rescue what he described as foreign spies supporting the opposition forces.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said in New York that he hoped to convene new peace talks in Geneva in February.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that the evacuation from Aleppo should finish within a couple of days.