© ReutersTV / ReutersA still image from video taken December 13, 2016 of a general view of bomb damaged eastern Aleppo, Syria in the rain. Video released December 13, 2016.
"Here [in Aleppo], I've been speaking to a local journalist and locals who have been here since dawn... They say they heard no sound of gunfire," Phelan reported from Aleppo.
Earlier on Thursday, Reuters reported allegations that Syrian forces opened fire on the medical convoy in eastern Aleppo, killing at least one person.
"[Pro-government fighters] fired at us and at ambulance vehicles and those people opening up the road," Reuters reported, citing an unnamed 'spokesman for the civil defense rescue service.'
Reuters also cited an interview posted "via an online messaging service," in which a man who said he was a civil defense worker claimed snipers were targeting people in the convoy.
Comment: Yep, these "civil defense" workers: Aleppo residents on Western-backed White Helmets: 'When camera is gone they leave people under rubble'
Later on Thursday, spokesperson for the ICRC in Syria, Ingy Sedky, told RT that there were no signs that the planned evacuation would be disrupted by an attack by any side.
"They are safe," she said, referring to the evacuees and humanitarian workers involved in the evacuation. "The operation is going well so far and people are starting to gather to get on the buses and ambulances in order to be evacuated."
A large-scale humanitarian operation is currently taking place in Aleppo. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that up to 100,000 people, including 40,000 children, have been evacuated from eastern Aleppo.
The Syrian Army has liberated most of the neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city held by Al-Nusra Front terrorists and other militant groups over the past weeks. At present, the militants control just 2.5 square kilometers of Aleppo, according to the Russian Reconciliation Center.
MSM using children in Western information campaign against Syria - RT report
Heartbreaking stories of children in the Aleppo warzone seem to be a useful tool in the mainstream media campaign against Syria and Russia. Bana al-Abed, aged 7, is one such medium - despite questions over her tweets' agenda and who's really behind them.
Bana's account, which has been verified by Twitter, was set up three months ago and has since gathered some 300,000 followers, along with global media coverage. The tweets, purportedly written by both Bana and her mother, Fatemah, depict life under siege in eastern Aleppo.
In his report, RT's Murad Gazdiev asks why Bana's family is always headed for the hottest spots in besieged Aleppo, instead of evacuating, and why despite the understandably faltering internet connection in the city, Bana's account was somehow tweeting, and posting videos, almost 24/7.
'Torture devices', ammo filmed at ISIS & Al-Nusra Front base in E. Aleppo (VIDEO)
Militants apparently used torture devices and stockpiled dozens of large-caliber mortars and shells in eastern Aleppo before the Syrian Army entered the area. Stunning footage has been filmed at Al-Nusra Front's firebase after it was retaken.
A military operation against Islamists in Aleppo, once Syria's second-largest city with booming industries and now the worst-hit place in the country, cornered the militants into a small 2.5-km sliver of land.
Exclusive footage taken by RT's Ruptly video agency suggests that in eastern Aleppo, civilians were apparently subjected to torture and abuse.
Syrian Army soldiers showed the Ruptly crew cells and large chains that appear to be torture devices inside a building allegedly used as a firebase by militants in the Al-Jazmati district.
"This is one of the means of torture that was used by the militants. When we came here and liberated this residential block, civilians were sitting here in the prisons. We released them," said Muhammad Hamud, a Syrian Army soldier, pointing at chains hanging from the ceiling.
He added that the army liberated around 15 captives in that location, afterwards showing black flags purportedly belonging to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as Al-Nusra Front).
A sizeable stockpile of mortar rounds as well as a large machine used to manufacture ammunition, are also seen in the building - a sign of the militants' capacity to produce sophisticated weaponry right on the frontline.
The mortar shells and ammunition production technology may originate from IS-controlled territories in either Syria or Iraq.
On Wednesday, Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a UK-based investigative team, said IS factories in Iraq use standardization, quality control and an efficient supply chain to make thousands of mortars, shells and rockets.
Detailed technical standards mean that mortar shells produced in one part of IS-controlled territory have the same caliber and can be fired from mortar tubes made in facilities located elsewhere. Earlier, dozens of Aleppo residents, including children, lost their lives or were severely injured by mortar shells that came from the eastern part of the city.
Meanwhile in Aleppo, people are celebrating their liberation from Islamists, who first captured the city in 2012. On Tuesday, Aleppo streets erupted in celebrations with hundreds people waving flags and shooting in the air amid reports that the Syrian Army took control of the last militant-held areas in the east.
The Ruptly video, however, also showed civilian buildings badly damaged or reduced to rubble after militants used them as military outposts, meaning that post-conflict reconstruction of Aleppo will not be easy.
Comment: Contrast with John Kirby, who can't bring himself to admit that U.S. policy has failed repeatedly in Syria, and that it supports terrorists:
And here he is talking about how proud he is of his own lies and idiocy: