Hezbollah-run media: Aleppo evacuation halted over Shi'ite villages

Empty buses are seen leaving after the evacuation of people from eastern Aleppo was suspended, Syria December 16, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A military news service run by Lebanon's pro-Damascus Hezbollah group said the evacuation of eastern Aleppo had been halted on Friday partly due to a failure to evacuate wounded people from two Shi'ite villages besieged by rebels in Idlib. It also cited previous reasons given for the suspension of the evacuation: that rebels had sought to take prisoners with them and had bombarded a road due to be used by the buses set to conduct the evacuation from the two villages, al-Foua and Kefraya. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese Shi'ite group, is fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Gareth Jones)