Bashar Jafari:

Terrorists in Aleppo Holding Hostages, Remains of Syrian troops, Arms

Rasa - Syria’s Ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jafari said on Thursday that a deal to evacuate Aleppo broke down over violations by terrorists who took hostages, the remains of Syrian Army troops, and prohibited weapons with them.

News ID: 425859

Date: 17 December 2016 - 21:33

RNA - “More than 9,449 terrorists and members of their families have evacuated from the Eastern part of the city, due to the agreement made for this purpose and thanks to Russian mediation,” said Jafari, RT reported.

He then explained why the evacuation stopped amid reports the Syrian Army blamed the militants for violating the evacuation deal.

“Unfortunately, the agreement was violated today by the terrorist groups who took hostages with them and corpses of Syrian Army martyrs while they were exiting the city,” Jafari said. “They also were transferring medium-caliber weapons after dismantling them in violation of the agreement.”

The agreement “does not allow them to take with them any prisoners, any hostages, and any corpses of Syrian Army soldiers killed by them but they did,” he explained, also adding that only light weapons were supposed to be taken out of the militant-occupied areas, but not the heavier arms.

Jafari estimated that a “couple thousand” of militants that refused to exit the city altogether comprise of “the most radical elements.” He claimed that those belonged to groups “working for Turkish intelligence.”

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