GENEVA: A week-long operation to evacuate tens of thousands of people from east Aleppo as well as two Shi'ite villages in Syria's Idlib province is complete, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday.

"All civilians who wished to be evacuated have been, as well as wounded and fighters," ICRC spokeswoman Krista Armstrong said. The aid agency led the complex operation in snowy winter conditions with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

The Syrian army said it had retaken complete control of Aleppo on Thursday after the last rebel fighters were evacuated from the battered city, handing President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory of the nearly six-year-old war.