Snow is falling in Syria, hiding the scars of war as the last refugees are evacuated from Aleppo after a day of waiting in the freezing cold because of delays.

A Syrian government source has confirmed a new deal has been reached to resume the evacuation of rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo.

Prizewinning 29-year-old independent journalist Hadi Abdullah has been reporting in the west of the province of Aleppo, controlled by the Syrian opposition.

Conflicting messages are coming from Syria, Turkey and Russia following the suspension of a ceasefire agreement between the latter two countries which was supposed to see tens of thousands of people evacuated from Aleppo to rebel-held Idlib.

An operation to evacuate thousands of civilians and fighters from the last rebel enclave in Aleppo has been well underway, continuing throughout the day on Thursday.

Officials from both pro-Assad military alliance and Syrian rebels have confirmed a truce deal is back on, meaning evacuations would start ‘within hours’.

Russia’s UN envoy says a deal has been reached on the ground in Aleppo for opposition fighters to leave.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the Syrian army has suspended active military operations in eastern Aleppo because a large civilian evacuation effort was underway, according to reports.

Syrian government forces have reportedly recaptured all of Aleppo’s historic ‘Old City’, pushing the last remaining rebels there out.

Syrian government forces and their allies have advanced into another rebel-held part of eastern Aleppo – according to an opposition official and the UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.