The last group of rebels and their families holed up in a small enclave in eastern Aleppo were evacuated on Thursday, under a deal that gives the army and its allies full control of the ancient city after years of fighting.
"Thanks to the blood of our heroic deaders, the heroic deeds and sacrifices of our armed forces and the allied forces, and the steadfastness of our people, the General Command of the Army and the Armed Forces announces the return of security and stability to Aleppo," said a military statement read by an army general on state television.
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
The statement said the victory in Aleppo is a "strategic transformation and a turning point in the war on terrorism and a deadly blow to the terrorist project and its supporters".
It is a further incentive, it added, to go on fighting to "eradicate terrorism and restore security and stability to every span of the homeland".
More buses leave Aleppo after delays
It represents a momentous victory for
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
and a crushing defeat for Syria's opposition.
Western Aleppo erupted in celebratory gunfire seen on Syrian TV, which showed uniformed soldiers and civilians shouting slogans in support of Assad.
The announcement came shortly after state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported that the last convoy carrying rebels and civilians had left eastern Aleppo.
"The last four buses carrying Lions of Islam and their families arrived in Ramussa", a district south of Aleppo controlled by government forces, the channel said.
Rebel evacuations were set in motion last week after Syria's opposition agreed to surrender its last footholds in eastern Aleppo. Since then, some 35,000 fighters and civilians have been bused out, according to the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
Ahmed Qorra Ali, an official with the rebel group Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
, confirmed "the last convoy has left the rebel-controlled area".
Earlier, the Red Thingy said more than 4,000 fighters had left rebel-held areas of the city in the "last stages" of the evacuation.
Rebel forces agreed to withdraw from the bastion after a month-long army offensive that drove them from more than 90 percent of their former territory.