Syrian military: Last rebels gone, recapture of Aleppo complete

The last "remnants" of rebels and their supporters have been evacuated from eastern Aleppo and the government has regained full control of the embattled city, the Syrian military said Thursday.

The Army issued a statement announcing "restoration of security and stability to Aleppo after liberating it from terrorism and terrorists," the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said.

Western Aleppo erupted in heavy celebratory gunfire, with Syrian TV showing uniformed soldiers and civilians shouting “Aleppo, Aleppo!” and “God, Syria and Bashar only,” the Associated Press reported.

Earlier this week, the U.N. Security Council approved a plan to send U.N. monitors to oversee the evacuations. The operation, aided by the International Red Cross, took place in fits and starts as both sides squabbled over security concerns while sometimes blizzard-like weather conditions further hampered the effort.

Aleppo is now under full government control for the first time since rebels took command of eastern parts of the city in 2012. Turkey and the West backed a hodgepodge of rebel groups, while Russia and Iran backed the Syrian government of Bashar Assad.

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the events in Aleppo don't mean the war is over, adding that the Assad regime and its supporters bear responsibility for the wasteland the once-vibrant city has become.

"It wasn't the opposition that bombed hospitals and schools and first responders as they rushed to save people," Kirby said. "It was the regime and its backers."

Still, recapturing the last holdout enclaves of the city mark Assad’s biggest victory in the 6-year-old civil war, and it was not clear what path forward remained for rebel forces. An estimated 500,000 people have died and millions have been forced to flee their homes during the conflict. 

Ahmad al-Khatib, an opposition media activist who left the Aleppo before the siege, said the city's fall was a date “we’ll never forget and we will never forgive.” according to AP.  “Let the world bear witness that Bashar Assad has killed and displaced and destroyed Aleppo, and he celebrates in his victory over the blood and offspring of Aleppo … with the agreement of the Arab and Western nations,” he posted on Twitter.

Assad called the liberation of Aleppo a victory not just for Syria but for all nations contributing to the fight against terrorism, particularly Iran and Russia.

“It is also a relapse for all the countries that are hostile toward the Syrian people and that have used terrorism as a means to realize their interests,” Assad said.

More than 35,000 rebels and civilians have fled former rebel-held enclaves in eastern Aleppo since last week, the United Nations said. The evacuation of the last patients from hospitals in the area was finalized Wednesday.

The evacuations appear to conclude a months-long siege of the city that prompted one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises. The tide of the struggle began to turn last year when Russia stepped up air assaults in support of Assad's troops, a withering assault that left many communities in rubble.

A United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a war crimes investigation, however, drew outrage from Syria and Iran.

The resolution, approved Wednesday by a vote of 105 to 15 with 52 abstentions, calls for the U.N.'s Syrian Commission of Inquiry to "collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations and abuses" in preparation for criminal proceedings.

The resolution, put forward by Liechtenstein and Sunni-led Qatar, drew the ire of Iran and Syria. Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari told the General Assembly the plan is "a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a U.N. member state." He also claimed that trials would undermine efforts at reconciliation and jeopardize prospects for a political solution to the crisis.

Gholam Hossein Dehqani, Iran’s ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the U.N., issued similar complaints and decried a "double standard."

"The international community should seek ending impunity everywhere in the world, including in the Occupied Palestinian territory, Yemen and all other territories that are facing foreign interventions and/or aggressions," he said.

All sides in the conflict have expressed agreement that any final solution must be political, not military. Assad has vowed that any solution that strips him of power is off the table. His battlefield victories have strengthened his hand.

“This great achievement will be a strong incentive to resume the national duties and eliminate terrorism as well as restore security and stability to every span of the homeland,” the Army’s general command said in a statement.

Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara