THE evacuation of east Aleppo was suspended yesterday after insurgents opened fire on buses sent to take them and civilians residents away.

The official Sana news agency reported that extremists had attacked a convoy at the southern Ramouseh checkpoint with mortar shells and sniper fire.

It said the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the international Committee of the Red Cross supervising the evacuation were forced to halt the operation.

Red Cross regional director Robert Mardini tweeted: “Regretfully, the operation was put on hold.

“We urge the parties to ensure that it can be relaunched and proceed in the right conditions.”

Spokesman Yasser al-Youssef of the Nour el-Din el-Zinki rebel group, one of those holding out in east Aleppo, claimed the army had opened fire on them first.

Sana reported that insurgents had also breached the agreement by trying to smuggle out hostages whose release had been negotiated and heavy weapons, including US-supplied TOW anti-tank missiles.

And military sources told al-Masdar News the insurgents had blocked the evacuation of hundreds of wounded civilians from the besieged towns of Fuah and Kafriya in Idlib province, a provision of the ceasefire agreement.

The Russian military monitoring centre in Syria said all civilians had been evacuated and Syrian government troops were driving the foreign-backed militants from the last square mile of Syria’s largest city.

It said over 9,500 people, including more than 4,500 gunmen and 337 wounded, had been evacuated so far.

“The operation by the Syrian army aimed at liberating the militant-controlled neighbourhoods of eastern Aleppo has been completed,” a statement by the centre said.

“The Syrian government forces continue to eliminate isolated pockets of militant resistance.”

Many of the guerillas evacuated to Idlib on Thursday crossed into Turkey, one of their principal backers.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said around 30 of them were being treated at a hospital just across the border in Hatay province.

He said there had been discussion with insurgents over the possibility of establishing a centre “within a security zone in Syria.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he and his Turkish counterpart Rece Tayyip Erdogan were working to launch a new round of peace talks between Damascus and the insurgents, which would to be held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.

He said that once the Syrian army had secured control of all of Aleppo, civilians would be able to return to their homes.