4 civilians killed in Shiite militias' attack in Aleppo

Assad-supporting militias opened fire on the first convoy of people in need of medical attention who were being evacuated from Aleppo. At least four civilians were killed and four others were injured when Iranian-backed Shiite militias opened fire on a convoy set to evacuate injured civilians from war-torn eastern Aleppo.

The buses were waiting to move to the Ramuse district before the convoy was attacked by the militias. Najib Ansari, Aleppo's civil defense director, told Anadolu Agency that they have so far received three people injured in the attack.

The convoy has started to head back to Aleppo.

"The convoy was shot at by regime forces and we have three injured, one of them from civil defense ... They were brought back to besieged areas," said ambulance service employee Ahmed Sweid.

The attack lasted a few minutes, and is the second violation of the ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu has said that the first goal of the evacuation is to get the sick and wounded to hospital either in Syria or Turkey. He added that evacuees needed to be put into camps quickly and that work was continuing on establishing camps in Syria.

President Putin said that Russian soldiers were preparing to lead the opposition out of Aleppo. The first people to leave the city under siege are those requiring medical attention. No civilians or opposition fighters have left yet.

The convoy was supposed to travel through government territory into opposition-held western Aleppo towards Idlib, a Syrian town southwest of Aleppo that is the same distance from Turkey as Aleppo.

Twenty buses and 10 ambulances will transport civilians and opposition fighters out of eastern Aleppo.

Residents hoping to be evacuated from the war-torn city are burning personal belongings they cannot take with them. "Outside every building you see a small fire, papers, women's clothes," said a resident of eastern Aleppo.

The evacuation plan comes following two weeks of rapid advances by the Syrian regime and its allies that drove civilians and opposition fighters into an ever-smaller area of land. The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is primarily responsible for the deaths of nearly 1,000 civilians in the last two weeks.

The Syrian regime has received air force support by Russia and military assistance from Iran. The opposition is backed by Turkey, the U.S., and Gulf countries.

Germany slams Assad regime, Russia, Iran on Aleppo