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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Turkey, Russia and Iran will hold a meeting in Moscow on December 27 to try to find a solution to the five-year conflict in Syria, Ankara said on Wednesday.

“We are striving to secure a ceasefire throughout the country and for negotiations for a political solution to start,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told TGRT Haber broadcaster, vowing Ankara would continue its efforts in the near future.

Forces loyal to the Syrian regime opened fire on the first convoy carrying the injured and wounded from east of Aleppo, a rescue service spokesman said.

The Red Cross confirmed on Thursday the evacuation of about 200 patients from Aleppo, saying the ambulances were leaving the eastern neighborhoods.

"(Pro-government fighters) fired at us and at ambulance vehicles and those people opening up the road," the spokesman told Reuters, adding that one person was killed.

A Syrian regime official said the first convoy that evacuated east Aleppo carried 951 people.

The head of the ambulance service in the opposition areas in Aleppo, said earlier on Thursday that three people were wounded when forces loyal to Assad shot at the convoy.

The United Nations confirmed security incidents during the evacuation, but they stressed that the evacuation of Aleppo continues. The UN pointed out that Russia has asked to participate in the evacuation process.

The Russia defense ministry says more than 108,000 civilians left to secure areas in Aleppo.

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Ceasefire
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Officials from the Nureddin al-Zinki and the hardline Ahrar al-Sham rebel groups confirmed to AFP that the truce deal had come into effect in second city Aleppo. “A ceasefire has come into effect in Aleppo after negotiations between the Russians and the Turkish Red Crescent,” said Yasser al-Youssef, a Nureddin al-Zinki political official.

“The first group of civilians and wounded people will leave at dawn on Thursday,” Youssef told AFP. He said an agreement on rebels had also been reached but did not give details on their evacuation.

But news of the deal was denied by a source close to Syria’s government, who said fighting was still ongoing across the city. “There is no agreement, the negotiations are ongoing,” the source said. And the Britain-based Observatory told AFP reported fierce shelling in Aleppo.

*AFP