19 December 2016•Update: 20 December 2016
By Lale Koklu
HATAY, Turkey
The number of injured evacuated from the war-battered city of Aleppo city to Turkish hospitals has risen to 131, Turkey’s Directorate General of Press and Information announced early Monday.
The injured have been transported to hospitals in Turkey’s southern Hatay province.
Five of the injured succumbed to their wounds despite all efforts to save them at hospital, the directorate said in a statement.
Fifty-seven of the injured are being treated in neighboring city hospitals, and 12 have been discharged, it added.
The injured were allowed into Turkey via the Cilvegozu Border Crossing.
Last week, Syrian opposition forces in eastern Aleppo reached a cease-fire deal with regime forces to evacuate civilians from the city.
More injured are expected in Turkey for treatment.
The Syrian regime and opposition forces are implementing a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia earlier this month.
It entails the evacuation of 20,000 civilians and fighters from eastern Aleppo on Monday, and the rest on Tuesday.
There will also be evacuations from the cities of Madaya and al-Zabadani – involving 1,500 people – as well as from the Shia towns of al-Fu’ah and Kefraya, with a combined population of 15,000.
On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the evacuation of civilians from the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo on the phone, according to a presidential source.
Last week Syrian opposition forces in eastern Aleppo reached a cease-fire deal with President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to evacuate civilians from the city.
Since then, at least 7,500 civilians have left Aleppo for safe areas in Idlib – located near the border with Turkey – according to Syrian opposition group officials.
Recent weeks have witnessed intensifying reports of violence against civilians in Aleppo, once an opposition stronghold.
