nothing short of a massacre
WASHINGTON/ALEPPO: US Secretary of State John Kerry accused the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad of carrying out “nothing short of a massacre” 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 hostilities in Aleppo, and said it appeared that airstrikes and shelling had stopped and that convoys were moving out.
“There 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,” Kerry said. “We are seeing the unleashing of a sectarian passion.”
He added: “The Assad regime is actually carrying out nothing short of a massacre.”
The 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).
A 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.
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