Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. First Aleppo Evacuees Leave Rebel-held Areas by VOA News Ambulances and green government buses began evacuating wounded and other civilians from the last rebel-held areas of Aleppo Thursday after evacuation attempts were halted a day earlier. The long line of buses and ambulances headed out of besieged eastern Aleppo and into government-held territory before eventually making it to another rebel-held part of the province. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society said the first evacuees reached the safe zone Thursday afternoon. "Red Crescent vehicles carrying the wounded have arrived, and the wounded will be transferred to...nearby hospitals for treatment," said Ahmad al-Dbis, who leads the doctors and other volunteers involved in the evacuation. Staff of the Syrian Red Crescent pulls a stretcher with a wounded person during an evacuation operation of rebel fighters and their families from rebel-held neighbourhoods in the embattled city of Aleppo on Dec. 15, 2016. According to the World Health Organization, 21 buses and 19 ambulances were involved in the evacuation. "We saw women and small children on the buses and some men. They were not full. Everything went very smoothly. It was very calm," Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO representative in Syria, told the Reuters news agency. U.N. humanitarian envoy Jan Egeland told reporters he hoped to see the start of a "last and successful attempt" at evacuations from eastern Aleppo, which opposition fighters seized in 2012. He said the operation included medical evacuations of wounded and sick people, other vulnerable civilians, and the rebel fighters. Most of them were bound for Idlib, while others may opt to go to Turkey. WATCH: Buses arrive to evacuate civilians The operation came after an agreement was reached late Wednesday, but was far from certain to be put into motion after a planned evacuation early Wednesday failed to materialize and a cease-fire in Aleppo failed. More violence was reported early Thursday, with activists and local medical officials saying pro-government forces fired on an ambulance that tried to leave rebel-held territory, wounding at least three people. A wounded boy sits inside an ambulance as Syrian rebels and their families gather at the rebel-held al-Amiriyah neighborhood as they wait to be evacuated to the government-controlled area of Ramoussa on the southern outskirts of the city on Dec. 15, 2016. The final departure of rebels from Aleppo would mark a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. His forces have been pressing a Russia-backed military campaign that accelerated in recent weeks as they captured more and more territory from the opposition. Years of fighting and a government siege of Aleppo have left much of the city in rubble and drawn alarm from the international community and aid groups worried about the thousands of people in need of food and medical attention. Specter of 'war crimes' U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said the resumption of fighting early Wednesday was appalling, and that "the resumption of extremely heavy bombardment by the Syrian government forces and their allies on an area packed with civilians...most likely constitutes war crimes." Zeid demanded that the Syrian government provide medical aid to Aleppo residents wounded during the bombardment, as required by international law, and said, "The way this deal was dangled in front of this battered and beleaguered population -- causing them to hope they might indeed live to see another day -- and then snatched away just half a day later is also outrageously cruel." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that collects reports about the prolonged civil war, said there were "very intense clashes on every front line," both in rebel-held and government-controlled parts of the city. Casualties were reported on both sides. How the new deal came about Members of the Nureddin al-Zinki rebel group told the French news agency the new cease-fire deal was reached through negotiations between the Russian military and the Turkish Red Crescent Society. Other reports said Iran, another major supporter of the Assad regime, held up the new cease-fire agreement until it had assurances that evacuations from Aleppo would be carried out simultaneously with the rescue of wounded people in two Shi'ite villages under siege by rebel forces. Abdul Salaam Abdul Razak, a military spokesman for the Nureddin al-Zinki group, said evacuations from the villages in Idlib province were confirmed late Wednesday, assuring the exodus from eastern Aleppo could begin at dawn Thursday. An official of another rebel group, Jabha Shamiya, told Reuters about 1,000 wounded people were expected to leave Aleppo first, and that the entire evacuation could be completed within three days. Russian soldiers gather in the government held side of the embattled city of Aleppo before the start on an evacuation operation of rebel fighters and their families from rebel-held areas on Dec. 15, 2016. Trading blame Russia blamed the rebels for breaking the cease-fire early Wednesday, allegedly by attacking Syrian government positions. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was Syrian government forces who began the attack. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by phone Wednesday afternoon that the Syrian government was willing to provide a safe exit for civilians and rebel fighters, but the rebels refused to adhere to the cease-fire, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Russian and U.S. diplomats have been gathered in Geneva for several days, discussing a long-term peace deal for Aleppo, but by Thursday morning those conversations had broken down, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. "They have been suspended," Ryabkov reportedly told Russian state news agency TASS. The discussions between the two countries' diplomats had been ongoing since Sunday. WATCH: Carter on Aleppo tragedy Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that his country, Russia and Iran would hold a summit in late December in the hope of finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Cavusoglu told an interviewer for the private Turkish channel TGRT the summit would take place December 27 in Moscow. *Also see: In Photos - Aleppo Evacuation