Civilians and rebels prevented from leaving as shelling resumes despite ceasefire deal brokered by Turkey and Russia 
 
 Iran-backed militias are preventing civilians and opposition fighters from leaving the besieged districts of east Aleppo as Russia struggles to convince the Assad government and allied militants to abide by a ceasefire agreement. 
 
 Shelling of the besieged districts resumed on Wednesday morning despite the agreement brokered by Turkish intelligence and the Russian military on Tuesday that would have offered a respite to tens of thousands of trapped civilians. 
 
 
 
 It was unclear on Wednesday when residents would be allowed to leave east Aleppo and whether the deal would hold. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency quoted the head of the Turkish Red Crescent as saying nearly 1,000 people from east Aleppo were being held at an Iranian militia checkpoint. 
 
 Rebels inside east Aleppo said they would support the agreement but Iranian-backed militias on the ground, which led the assault into east Aleppo, were blocking it because the deal was reached without Assad or Iran’s involvement. 
 
 
 
 “The sectarian militias want to resume the massacre in Aleppo and the world has to act to prevent this sectarian slaughter led by Iran,” said Bassam Mustafa, a member of the political council of Noureddine Zinki, one of the main rebel groups in east Aleppo. “The opposition will continue to abide by the agreement.” 
 
 Yasser al-Youssef, a spokesman for the group, said Russia was attempting to convince the Assad government to accept the ceasefire. The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said discussions were ongoing with Russia and Iran to continue the planned evacuations. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ruined buildings in east Aleppo Photograph: TASS / Barcroft Images 
 
 Russia and Turkey negotiated the agreement apparently without the Assad regime’s knowledge. The Syrian military initially said it had no knowledge of the deal before backtracking and saying the evacuations would begin on Wednesday at 5am Aleppo time. The evacuation of rebel-held eastern Aleppo has however yet to begin. 
 
 The confusion over the deal, which imposed a ceasefire at 6pm local time on Tuesday, highlighted the splits and competing interests of Assad’s supporters, which include Russia, Iran and Iran-backed militias on the ground, who were on Tuesday implicated by the United Nations in execution-style shootings of civilians in opposition areas. 
 
 Fight for Aleppo is almost over – but a new chapter of misery begins Read more 
 
 Residents said intense shelling had resumed on Wednesday in their shrinking, besieged enclave, where they had endured what the UN described as a brutal “meltdown of humanity” as forces loyal to Assad rampaged through newly reclaimed districts. 
 
 
 
 Russia said the renewed shelling was a response to rebel attacks. 
 
 The French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said confusion surrounding the evacuation showed it was imperative to have UN observers to manage the process. “France wants the presence of UN observers on the ground and humanitarian organisations like the Red Cross must intervene,” he told France 2 television. 
 
 There had been conflicting accounts of the expected start times for the evacuation. A military official in the pro-Assad alliance had said the evacuation was due to start at 5am (3am GMT), while opposition officials said they had been expecting a first group of wounded people to leave earlier. 
 
 However, none had left by dawn, according to a Reuters witness at the agreed point of departure. Twenty buses were waiting with their engines running but showed no sign of moving into Aleppo’s eastern districts. 
 
 “There is certainly a delay,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor. The pro-opposition Orient TV cited its correspondent as saying the plan might be delayed until Thursday. 
 
 The United Nations said on Wednesday it was not involved in plans to evacuate fighters and civilians, but it was ready to help. 
 
 “[The UN] stands ready to facilitate the voluntary and safe evacuation of injured, sick and vulnerable civilians from the besieged part of the city,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. 
 
 A senior Turkish official told the Guardian that Ankara and Moscow would act as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement, which would allow “civilians and moderate rebels with light weapons” to leave Aleppo for Idlib province. “Once they reach Idlib, they will be free to relocate,” the official added. 
 
 Rebel officials from Nour al-din al-Zenki and Ahrar al-Sham, two powerful opposition groups with a presence in the city, confirmed the deal to evacuate, but there was confusion over exactly where the opposition would have to go, with rebels saying they would be transported to the western Aleppo countryside. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Syrian residents fleeing Aleppo’s Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood arrive in the city’s Fardos district. Photograph: Getty Images 
 
 Weeks of immense suffering and violence in east Aleppo since the Syrian regime and allies began a final push into territory that had been in rebel hands since 2012 have left residents in total despair and increasingly angry at the international community for abandoning them to their fate. 
 
 The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the security council that the Syrian government, along with Russia and Iran, bore responsibility for the deaths of civilians in Aleppo. She accused the three states of putting a “noose” around civilians in the city, asking: “Are you incapable of shame? … Is there no execution of a child that gets under your skin? Is there literally nothing that shames you?” 
 
 Twisted narratives won’t spare Aleppo a moment of its agony | Janine di Giovanni Read more 
 
 The United Nations said it had received reliable reports from multiple sources that pro-Assad forces, including the Iraqi Shia militia Harakat al-Nujaba, had carried out summary killings of at least 82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children, in four different neighbourhoods of east Aleppo that had fallen under government control. 
 
 Iranian leaders were self-congratulatory on Wednesday at the role it had played in the assault. The chief military adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the city was “liberated thanks to a coalition between Iran, Syria, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.” 
 
 Reports of killings by the advancing forces raised grave concerns over the fate of tens of thousands of civilians, doctors and activists who have remained in the shrinking rebel enclaves, and who faced death if they stayed there or being tortured and killed in regime-held areas if they fled over government lines. 
 
 
 
 As a White Helmet in Aleppo I ask for only one thing: help | Raed Al Saleh Read more 
 
 Reuters reported that residents in eastern Aleppo were burning personal possessions as they prepared to leave, fearing looting by the Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias. 
 
 
 
 “I really, really hope this deal will materialise because the suffering of civilians on both sides has been immense,” said Pawel Krzysiek, head of media at the International Committee of the Red Cross, who was in Aleppo. “There is a human tragedy happening all over the city. People who lost everything are suffering here enormously.” 
 
 The evacuation of east Aleppo means the opposition will cede the entire city, Syria’s former commercial capital, to the Assad regime, surrendering the last major urban stronghold where it maintained an active presence. 
 
 
 
 Additional reporting by Saeed Kamali Dehghan ||||| ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - An evacuation of rebel-held districts of Aleppo is back on track and expected to begin within hours, officials on both sides of the war said late on Wednesday, a retreat that would mark a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and end years of fighting. 
 
 An initial deal that would have seen thousands of civilians and opposition fighters granted safe passage out of the city stalled on Wednesday and the planned exodus failed to materialize. 
 
 Iran, one of Assad’s main backers, had imposed new conditions, saying it wanted the simultaneous evacuation of wounded from two villages besieged by rebels, according to rebel and U.N. sources. 
 
 But Abdul Salam Abdul Razak, a military spokesman for the Nour al-Din al Zinki rebel group, said late on Wednesday that a new agreement had been reached which included those villages in Idlib province. “Within the coming hours its implementation will begin,” he told Reuters. 
 
 An official in the Jabha Shamiya rebel group said implementation would begin around 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Thursday. 
 
 An official in the pro-Damascus military alliance confirmed the truce deal was on, and said about 15,000 people would be evacuated from the majority Shi’ite villages, Foua and Kefraya, in return for the evacuation from Aleppo of “militants and their families and whoever wants to leave among civilians”. 
 
 He said those leaving Aleppo would head for Idlib province to the west of the city. 
 
 The Jabha Shamiya official however denied that 15,000 people would leave the two villages and said only the wounded would be evacuated. 
 
 It was not immediately clear how the deal had been reached. 
 
 The original ceasefire was brokered by Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally, and opposition backer Turkey on Tuesday. But the planned evacuation of rebel-held areas did not happen and instead shelling and gunfire erupted in the city on Wednesday, with Turkey accusing government forces of breaking the truce. Syrian state television said rebel shelling killed six people. 
 
 The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, said the bombardment by Syrian government forces and their allies “most likely constitutes war crimes”. 
 
 Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed in a phone call earlier in the day to make a joint effort to start the process, Turkish presidential sources said. 
 
 Shortly before the new deal was announced, clashes raged in Aleppo. 
 
 Government forces made a new advance in Sukkari - one of just a handful of districts still held by rebels - and brought half of the neighborhood under their control, the Observatory said. Rebels saying they launched an attack against government forces using suicide car bombs. 
 
 The Russian defense ministry said - before the report of the government forces’ advance in Sukkari - that the rebels controlled an enclave of only 2.5 square km (1 square mile). 
 
 RAPID ADVANCES 
 
 At dawn on Wednesday nobody had left under the initial evacuation plan, according to a Reuters witness waiting at the departure point, where 20 buses stood with engines running but showed no sign of moving into rebel districts. 
 
 People in eastern Aleppo had packed their bags and burned personal belongings, fearing looting by the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed militia allies. 
 
 Officials in the military alliance backing Assad could not be reached immediately for comment on why the evacuation had stalled. 
 
 U.N. war crimes investigators said the Syrian government bore the main responsibility for preventing any attacks and reprisals in eastern Aleppo and that it must hold to account any troops or allied forces committing violations. 
 
 In what appeared to be a separate development from the planned evacuation, the Russian defense ministry said 6,000 civilians and 366 fighters had left rebel-held districts over the past 24 hours. 
 
 Civilians fill containers with water in a rebel-held besieged area of Aleppo, Syria December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail 
 
 A total of 15,000 people, including 4,000 rebel fighters, wanted to leave Aleppo, according to a media unit run by the Syrian government’s ally Hezbollah. 
 
 The evacuation plan was the culmination of two weeks of rapid advances by the Syrian army and its allies that drove insurgents back into an ever-smaller pocket of the city under intense air strikes and artillery fire. 
 
 By taking full control of Aleppo, Assad has proved the power of his military coalition, aided by Russia’s air force and an array of Shi’ite militias from across the region. 
 
 Rebels have been supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies, but the support they have enjoyed has fallen far short of the direct military backing given to Assad by Russia and Iran. 
 
 Russia’s decision to deploy its air force to Syria 18 months ago turned the war in Assad’s favor after rebel advances across western Syria. In addition to Aleppo, he has won back insurgent strongholds near Damascus this year. 
 
 The government and its allies have focused the bulk of their firepower on fighting rebels in western Syria rather than Islamic State, which this week managed to take back the ancient city of Palmyra, once again illustrating the challenge Assad faces reestablishing control over all Syria. 
 
 FEAR STALKS STREETS 
 
 As the battle for Aleppo unfolded, global concern has risen over the plight of the 250,000 civilians who were thought to remain in its rebel-held eastern sector before the sudden army advance began at the end of November. 
 
 The rout of rebels in Aleppo sparked a mass flight of terrified civilians and insurgents in bitter weather, a crisis the United Nations said was a “complete meltdown of humanity”. There were food and water shortages in rebel areas, with all hospitals closed. 
 
 On Tuesday, the United Nations voiced deep concern about reports it had received of Syrian soldiers and allied Iraqi fighters summarily shooting dead 82 people in recaptured east Aleppo districts. It accused them of “slaughter”. 
 
 The Syrian army has denied carrying out killings or torture among those captured, and Russia said on Tuesday rebels had “kept over 100,000 people in east Aleppo as human shields”. 
 
 Slideshow (8 Images) 
 
 Fear stalked the city’s streets. Some survivors trudged in the rain past dead bodies to the government-held west or the few districts still in rebel hands. Others stayed in their homes and awaited the Syrian army’s arrival. ||||| BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria, where fighting is still underway in Aleppo despite a cease-fire deal that was to allow opposition fighters and civilians to withdraw (all times local): 
 
 1:20 p.m. 
 
 Iran is congratulating its close ally Syria on driving rebels from Aleppo, where fighting is still underway despite a cease-fire deal that was to allow for the evacuation of opposition fighters and tens of thousands of civilians. 
 
 Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Wednesday that the "brave sons of the region" have forced the "mercenary terrorists" to retreat. 
 
 Thousands of Shiite fighters from Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan are battling alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces as they near victory in Aleppo, the country's largest city and former commercial capital. Russia, another key ally, has provided airstrikes. 
 
 Gen. Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said that after Aleppo, "Americans have realized that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the top player in southwest Asia." 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:40 p.m. 
 
 Syrian activists say fighter jets have resumed bombing raids over remaining rebel areas in eastern Aleppo, further imperiling a cease-fire deal for the city. 
 
 Media activist Mahmoud Raslan says the aircraft bombed the rebel Ansari district in the city on Wednesday. 
 
 He says that the aircraft "began to strike as if there's no such thing as a 'cease-fire' or 'evacuation of civilians'." 
 
 Raslan says the bombing is a de facto announcement that "they are going to kill us all." 
 
 A member of the first responders' team in eastern Aleppo, Ibrahem al-Haj, confirmed the strikes. It was not clear whether the planes were Syrian or Russian. 
 
 Russia and Turkey brokered a cease-fire deal to evacuate Syrian rebels and civilians from their last holdout in eastern Aleppo late on Tuesday but that appeared to be collapsing on Wednesday, according to both sides. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:50 a.m. 
 
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed new Syria talks with the United States as "pointless." 
 
 Lavrov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies on Wednesday that Moscow has high hopes for Syria talks with Turkey and thinks they could be "more effective than many months of a pointless hangout we have had the United States." 
 
 Lavrov has complained that every time they reach a deal, the United States "rolls back" on what has been agreed. 
 
 Russia and Turkey have brokered a cease-fire deal to evacuate Syrian rebels and civilians from their last holdout in eastern Aleppo that seems to be unravelling on Wednesday, according to both sides. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:45 a.m. 
 
 European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is appealing on the Syrian government and Russia to do their utmost to spare civilians as they prepare to capture the last rebel holdouts in the besieged city of Aleppo. 
 
 Mogherini said in a statement on Wednesday that "the priority now, in these hours, is to protect civilians, guarantee them safe and monitored transit to a place of safety." 
 
 She added that "this is particularly the responsibility of the Syrian government and its allies." Mogherini also warned that "those who perpetrate war crimes will be held accountable." 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:40 a.m. 
 
 Media reports say that buses, which were meant to evacuate rebels and tens of thousands of civilians from Syria's eastern Aleppo, have left the crossing point on the edge of the opposition enclave and returned to their depots. 
 
 The buses' departure could signal a major delay in the evacuations and even the collapse of the cease-fire deal. 
 
 The Lebanese channel al-Manar TV has broadcast footage showing Syrian government's green-colored buses leaving the evacuation point without any passengers on Wednesday. 
 
 Al-Manar is the media arm of the Lebanese militant Shiite group Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's government forces in Syria. 
 
 Shelling and rocket fire also resumed Wednesday at the edges of the opposition's one-square-mile enclave in Aleppo. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:15 a.m. 
 
 A legal adviser to Syrian opposition factions says an evacuation deal for Aleppo is behind held up by Iranian fighters who have renewed shelling of the rebel part of the city. 
 
 Shiite volunteers from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan have been fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar Assad's forces. Assad is also backed by Russia, his top ally in the war. 
 
 Osama Abu Zayd said despite Russian renewals of their commitment to the truce agreement, the Iranian field commander in Syria was obstructing the deal. 
 
 Aby Zayd told The Associated Press on Wednesday that "it is clear that the Russians can't get Iran to abide by the deal." He says Iranian militias and Hezbollah are shelling four Aleppo neighborhoods still held by the opposition. 
 
 Abu Zayd spoke on Wednesday from the outskirts of Aleppo. He says the Iranians are making new demands, including recovering the remains of Iranian fighters killed in Aleppo and the release of Iranian hostages held in Idlib. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11 a.m. 
 
 The Russian Defense Ministry says Syrian rebels in the besieged city of Aleppo have broken the latest cease-fire deal. 
 
 The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the rebels "resumed the hostilities" at dawn, trying to break through Syrian government positions to the north-west. 
 
 The ministry also says the rebels fired at a convoy that was due to depart in the early hours of the day from an eastern Aleppo neighborhood with the rebels who had agreed to be evacuated to the city of Idlib. 
 
 Syrian rebels and civilians were expected to pull out from their last holdout in Aleppo after the remaining rebel factions the previous day reached a cease-fire deal to evacuate from eastern Aleppo. 
 
 ___ 
 
 10:50 a.m. 
 
 Syrian activists say shelling has resumed in the remaining rebel part of eastern the city of Aleppo, despite a cease-fire deal to allow for the evacuations of the opposition fighters and tens of thousands of civilians. 
 
 Aleppo media activist Mahmoud Raslan says he was reporting for a Turkish agency when a rocket crashed beside him at around 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday. He shared an audio recording of the explosion with the Associated Press. 
 
 The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says an explosion was heard in the rebel-held Saif al-Dawleh district around the same time. 
 
 Pro-government forces have trapped thousands of civilians and gunmen in eastern Aleppo under a crushing bombardment over the past weeks as they pushed to clear the northern city of the opposition. 
 
 The implementation of the deal struck on Tuesday to evacuate civilians and rebels from the enclave, signaling a surrender by the opposition, was delayed on Wednesday morning. 
 
 ___ 
 
 8:50 a.m. 
 
 The Syrian rebel pullout from their last holdout in the city of Aleppo has been delayed. 
 
 The withdrawal was supposed to start early in the morning on Wednesday after the rebels the previous day reached a cease-fire deal to evacuate from eastern Aleppo in what is effectively a surrender — and a defining moment in Syria's civil war. 
 
 The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV broadcast footage of Syrian government buses idling at an agreed-on evacuation point. It's unclear what has caused the delay. 
 
 The TV says it expects at least another couple of hours of delay. It says the buses are prepared to move 5,000 fighters and their families to Atareb, an opposition-held town in the northwestern Aleppo countryside. 
 
 The Syrian government or the opposition haven't made any announcements about the delay. ||||| Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Smoke is seen rising in this rebel-held area on Wednesday 
 
 A deal to evacuate rebel fighters and civilians from eastern Aleppo has stalled, with heavy shelling reported in the Syrian city. 
 
 A ceasefire was declared in Aleppo on Tuesday and buses brought in to ferry people out of the devastated enclave. 
 
 But fighting resumed on Wednesday. Syrian activists also say air strikes over rebel-held territory have resumed. 
 
 The breakdown of the deal, brokered by Russia and Turkey, is being attributed to demands from the government side. 
 
 It is said to be seeking the evacuation of injured fighters and civilians from nearby towns encircled by opposition forces. 
 
 The latest on the ground 
 
 Eastern Aleppo has been held by the rebels since 2012. But they have been squeezed into ever-smaller areas in recent months by a major government offensive, backed by Russian air power. 
 
 In recent days government troops have made sweeping gains. Russia's military said on Wednesday that rebels were confined to only 2.5sq km of the city. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Buses were brought in for evacuations but have not been used 
 
 Late on Tuesday, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told an emergency session of the UN Security Council that "military actions in eastern Aleppo are over". 
 
 Under the evacuation deal, civilians and rebels from eastern Aleppo were to be allowed to go to rebel-held areas in northern Syria. 
 
 Evacuations had been due to start at 05:00 (03:00 GMT), but did not go ahead. Fresh shelling was reported several hours later. 
 
 "The clashes are violent and bombardment is very heavy... it seems as though everything (the ceasefire) is finished," Rami Abdulrahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group, said. 
 
 The SOHR also said aircraft had resumed bombing in rebel-held areas. 
 
 Russia - Syria's ally - said the Syrian army resumed firing after the rebels broke the truce. Syrian TV reported rebel rocket fire on government-held parts of the city and said at least six people had been killed. 
 
 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syrian forces of breaking the ceasefire deal and called the situation in Aleppo "very fragile". He said civilians had to be allowed to leave. 
 
 The residents still under siege 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bombs interrupt interview as Zouhir Alshimale, a journalist in east Aleppo, says there is nowhere to go that is safe 
 
 Residents of besieged eastern Aleppo have faced weeks of bombardment and chronic food and fuel shortages. Medical facilities in the city have largely been reduced to rubble. 
 
 AFP news agency reported that before the fighting had resumed, crowds of civilians, holding belongings, had gathered in the streets to await evacuation. 
 
 Some information continues to emerge from besieged areas: 
 
 Ibrahim Abu-Laith, a spokesman for the White Helmets volunteer rescue group, said more than 40 people were injured in eastern Aleppo 
 
 One resident, Zohair, told the BBC there was total chaos. "We don't know how many casualties there are and if there is anyone to help them" 
 
 "Bombing is ongoing, no one can move," one activist, Mohammad al-Khatib told AFP. "The wounded and dead are lying in the street. No one dares to try and retrieve the bodies" 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Here comes the barrel bomb" - trapped resident Joud al-Khatib in Aleppo 
 
 Residents say they fear reprisals from government forces or being forcibly conscripted. There have also been reports of atrocities. 
 
 On Tuesday the UN said it had received reliable evidence of summary executions taking place, saying that in four areas 82 civilians were killed by pro-government forces. It said that many more may have died. 
 
 Syria's government and Russia said the allegations were untrue. 
 
 Meanwhile, the BBC has learned that Western forces are using satellites and unmanned aircraft to gather evidence of possible war crimes in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria. 
 
 How many people are in eastern Aleppo? 
 
 It is not clear exactly how many people remain in besieged areas. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura put the figure at about 50,000. 
 
 He said there were approximately 1,500 rebel fighters, about 30% of whom were from the jihadist group formerly known as the al-Nusra Front. 
 
 Other local sources say there could be as many as 100,000 people, many of them arriving from areas recently taken by the government. 
 
 High stakes - by Sebastian Usher, BBC Middle East analyst 
 
 The deal to evacuate rebel fighters and civilians out of eastern Aleppo is only the latest and most complex of such arrangements. It is also the one with the highest stakes. 
 
 Rebel-held towns in a ring around Damascus have one by one ceded in similar ways. 
 
 The choreography often follows the same pattern, with buses waiting hours or days at evacuation points as final guarantees on both sides are hammered out. Safe passage to the rebel-held province of Idlib has also been part of such deals. 
 
 More rarely, the agreements have involved reciprocal evacuations from government areas encircled by rebels. That now seems to have been made part of this deal, complicating it further. 
 
 The violence has resumed, but that does not mean that the deal is off. The rebels have reached a point of no return. Many more lives may be lost in the meantime, but it is all but certain that the fighters will leave Aleppo.
– Looks like the "complete meltdown of humanity" in Aleppo will continue for at least another day. The ceasefire declared in the war-ravaged Syrian city Tuesday appears, to nobody's surprise, to have broken down, leaving tens of thousands of civilians in rebel-held areas stranded in desperate conditions. Reuters reports that a planned evacuation has stalled amid fierce fighting and what rebels say is a resumption of airstrikes by Russian-backed Syrian government forces. Buses that were supposed to evacuate fighters and civilians to rebel-held areas outside the city returned to their depots Wednesday morning, the AP reports. Activists say Iran-backed militias and Syrian government forces blocked the evacuation after demanding that the Russia- and Turkey-brokered deal be changed to allow the evacuation of their own injured fighters from towns in rebel-held zones, reports the BBC. "The sectarian militias want to resume the massacre in Aleppo and the world has to act to prevent this sectarian slaughter led by Iran," a member of rebel group Noureddine Zinkitells the Guardian. "The opposition will continue to abide by the agreement." Russia, which claims thousands of civilians and hundreds of fighters left the remaining rebel-held portion of Aleppo over the last 24 hours, says Syrian forces are responding to rebel attacks, and they expect resistance to end over the next two or three days.