ALEPPO/BEIRUT/WASHINGTON: An operation to evacuate thousands of civilians and fighters from the last rebel bastion in Aleppo began Thursday, part of a cease-fire deal that would end years of fighting for the city and mark a major victory for Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A convoy of ambulances and buses with nearly 1,000 people aboard drove out of the devastated rebel-held area of Aleppo, which was besieged and bombarded for months by Syrian government forces, a Reuters reporter on the scene said.

Syrian state television reported later that two further convoys of 15 buses each had also left east Aleppo. The second had reached the rebel-held area of Rashidin, an insurgent said.

Women cried out in celebration as the buses passed through a government-held area, and some waved the Syrian flag. Assad said in a video statement the taking of Aleppo was a historic moment.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the government of Assad is carrying out “nothing short of a massacre” in Aleppo.

An elderly woman, who had gathered with others in a government area to watch the convoy removing the rebels, raised her hands to the sky, saying: “God save us from this crisis, and from the [militants]. They brought us only destruction.”

Wissam Zarqa, an English teacher in the rebel zone, said most people were happy to be leaving safely. But he said: “Some of them are angry they are leaving their city. I saw some of them crying. This is almost my feeling in a way.”

Earlier, ambulances trying to evacuate people came under fire from fighters loyal to the Syrian government, who injured three people, a rescue service spokesman said. Behind those fleeing was a wasteland of flattened buildings, concrete rubble and bullet-pocked walls, where tens of thousands had lived until recent days under intense bombardment even after medical and rescue services had collapsed.Turkey is considering establishing a camp in Syria for civilians being evacuated from Aleppo, and the number of people brought out of the city could reach 100,000, Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said.

In Aleppo’s rebel-held area, columns of black smoke could be seen as residents hoping to depart burned personal belongings they do not want to leave for government forces to loot.

“It’s difficult to leave your belongings knowing that your enemy is going to use them. Thugs usually will take them ... They will take everything as a prize for kicking us out,” Zarqa, the teacher, said.

A senior Russian general, Viktor Poznikhir, said the Syrian army had almost finished its operations in Aleppo.

However, the war will still be far from over, with insurgents retaining their rural stronghold of Idlib province to the southwest of Aleppo, and Daesh (ISIS) holding swaths of the east and recapturing Palmyra this week.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said close to 1,000 civilians and 26 wounded, including several children, were evacuated, a total it expects to double by day’s end. The ICRC said there was “very light screening” by Syrian authorities without identity checks and registrations.

Rebels and their families would be taken toward Idlib, a city in northwestern Syria which is outside government control, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Idlib province, mostly controlled by hard-line Islamist groups, is not a popular destination for fighters and civilians from east Aleppo, where nationalist rebel groups predominated.

A senior European diplomat said last week that the fighters had a choice between surviving for a few weeks in Idlib or dying in Aleppo. “For the Russians it’s simple. Place them all in Idlib and then they have all their rotten eggs in one basket.”

Idlib is already a target for Syrian and Russian airstrikes but it is unclear if the government will push for a ground assault or simply seek to contain rebels there for now.

The International Rescue Committee said: “Escaping Aleppo doesn’t mean escaping the war. ... After witnessing the ferocity of attacks on civilians in Aleppo, we are very concerned that the sieges and barrel bombs will follow the thousands who arrive in Idlib.”

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned that Idlib is now at risk of a similar escalation of violence as witnessed in Aleppo.

“If there is no political agreement and a cease-fire, Idlib will become the next Aleppo,” he said, adding that it was his priority to secure the deployment of U.N. staff to supervise the Aleppo evacuation. The evacuation deal was expected to include the safe passage of wounded from the Shiite villages of Al-Foua and Kufreya near Idlib that are besieged by rebels. A convoy set off to evacuate the villages Thursday, Syrian state media said.

Efforts to evacuate eastern Aleppo began earlier in the week with a truce brokered by Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally, and Turkey, which has backed the opposition. But the agreement broke down following renewed fighting Wednesday and the evacuation did not take place then as planned.