UN envoy: Idlib could become the next Aleppo

A senior United Nations official warned on Thursday that thousands of people evacuated from rebel-held areas of Aleppo after a crushing government offensive could suffer the same fate in their new place of refuge outside the city.

UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said a cessation of hostilities across Syria was vital if another battle like the bloody fight for Aleppo was to be avoided.

At least 34,000 people, both civilians and fighters, had been evacuated from east Aleppo in a week-long operation, the latest UN figures show.

“Many of them have gone to Idlib, which could be in theory the next Aleppo,” de Mistura warned in Geneva.

Thousands of refugees from Aleppo were ferried to Idlib, arousing fears that the rebel-held city in northwestern Syria could be next. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has declared that the war is far from over and that his armed forces would march on other rebel-held areas.

Evacuees from Aleppo had expressed concerns about being taken to Idlib and a senior European diplomat said earlier this month that this would suit Russia, Assad’s main military backer, as it would put “all their rotten eggs in one basket”.

Assad said that regaining full control of Aleppo was a victory shared by his Russian and Iranian allies.

The last group of civilians and rebels holed up in a small enclave was expected to leave in the next 24 hours, with the Syrian army and its allies seizing all of the city, delivering the biggest prize of the nearly six-year war to Assad.

In comments after meeting a senior Iranian delegation, Assad said his battlefield successes were a “basic step on the road to ending terrorism in the whole of Syria and creating the right circumstances for a solution to end the war”.

Russia’s air force conducted hundreds of raids that pulverized rebel-held parts of Aleppo while Iranian-backed militias, led by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, poured thousands of fighters to fight rebels into the city.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday that Russian air strikes in Syria had killed 35,000 rebel fighters and halted a chain of revolutions in the Middle East.

Speaking at a gathering of senior military officials that appeared designed to showcase Russia’s military achievements, Shoigu said Moscow’s intervention had prevented the collapse of the Syrian state.

UN votes to set up panel to prepare Syria war crimes cases

The United Nations endorsed the formation of a special team to gather evidence and prepare cases of war crimes and human rights violations committed during the conflict in Syria.

A resolution on establishing the investigative mechanism was adopted in the 193-nation assembly by a vote of 105 to 15, with 52 abstentions.

The team will work in coordination with the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

Civil society groups have also been compiling documents, lists of witnesses and video footage that could one day be used in a court of law.

The draft resolution was initially co-sponsored by 54 countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Addressing the assembly, Liechtenstein’s Ambassador Christina Wenaweser said the resolution would address the Security Council’s failure to ensure those responsible for serious crimes face justice.

“We are finally taking one meaningful step to meet the expectations that we have failed for such a long time,” Wenaweser said.

The investigative committee have submitted several reports detailing atrocities committed during the war that has killed more than 310,000 people.

Russia, Syria’s main ally, and China in 2014 blocked a request by the council that the International Criminal Court begin investigations of war crimes in Syria.

[with Agencies]