© REUTERS/ SANA
Following yesterday's reports of Al-Qaeda commanders negotiating to surrender in eastern Aleppo come reports today of Jihadi fighters giving up, surrendering themselves to the Syrian authorities, and being taken away from Aleppo in green buses.
It seems that the total number of diehard Jihadis still resisting the Syrian army in eastern Aleppo may have fallen to no more than a few hundred. The area of eastern Aleppo that is still contested meanwhile has shrunk to just 10 square kilometres, and it seems that no significant part even of this area is fully Al-Qaeda controlled any longer.
It is not clear where the Jihadis who have surrendered are being taken to. However it seems more likely that they are being bused to Turkey whence they came, rather than to the Al-Qaeda controlled provincial capital of Idlib to Aleppo's west.
It seems that the 'Great Battle of Aleppo' is almost ended, and that the Syrian army is on the brink of winning its greatest victory of the Syrian war.
Comment: Videos below.
First, R&U's round-up of the week's advances in Aleppo:
And some conversations with captured jihadists:
Next, South Front's latest updates (in chronological order):
Comment: The Syrian Army now controls 70% of the area previously controlled by jihadists in E. Aleppo. The Army has restored the water supply; the main pumping station had been controlled by jihadists, who had shut it off and booby-trapped it with 10 explosive devices. Sixty-six militants surrendered over the last day and were granted amnesty; 1,224 civilians fled the areas still controlled by jihadis, bringing the total to 80,000+ over the course of the operation. On their last ropes, the jihadis are calling for a 5-day humanitarian pause in order to catch their breath and evacuate around 500 wounded militants, according to a local source. But SANA reports that militants continued to shell government-controlled districts, killing 12 and injuring 64.