Limited Evacuations Resume after Buses Set on Fire; Deadly Attack in Jordan; New Unity Government Announced in Lebanon
CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: Free at last. Several hundred Syrians escaped the hell of Aleppo after a fragile evacuation deal resumes.</s>NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Gunmen carry out a deadly attack at a popular tourist spot in Jordan. Now authorities are trying to find out if they belong to any terror group.</s>VANIER: Plus Hollywood loses a personality of the Golden Age. A look back at the extravagant life of socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor.</s>ALLEN: Zsa Zsa Gabor -- she was with us a very long time. Thanks for joining us. We're live here in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.</s>VANIER: And I'm Cyril Vanier. And CNN NEWSROOM starts right now. The evacuation deal that could save thousands of lives in the eastern Aleppo is back on. Hundreds were evacuated to the Aleppo countryside on Sunday but thousands more are still trapped in freezing temperatures after surviving a brutal offensive by the Syrian government.</s>VANIER: It's been an agonizing wait for those who are still stuck in the rebel-held areas. Convoys were stopped for hours after an attack on rescue buses heading to other besieged areas. Our Muhammad Lila has more from the Turkish-Syrian border</s>MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After a weekend of desperation and disappointment there finally appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel. The U.N. is referring to these as limited evacuations. We understand just about five buses or so filled with people who are being evacuated from the eastern part of Aleppo to the Aleppo countryside. Now this was part of a bigger plan, a bigger transfer or exchange, if you will, of civilians who were trapped. There are some civilians in a couple of pro-regime towns that have been encircled by jihadi militants including elements of al Qaeda. They've been besieged in those towns for more than a year and a half. And as part of this arrangement, people in those towns are going to be released in batches of about a thousand or so and concurrently similar numbers will be released from the eastern part of Aleppo. Now the big question mark in this is because you're dealing with a transfer, it requires a lot of guarantees on the ground, not just observation from the United Nations and relief organizations but it also requires a certain buy-in from all of the militant groups on the ground as well as the Syrian army and the pro-Assad militias. And we've seen over the weekend that there are some elements that don't want this evacuation to take place. Of course, the biggest example of that were these buses that were headed to those besieged towns to take those people out. Well, some of those buses were set on fire before they can even reach there. No group has officially claimed responsibility for setting those buses on fire but we do know that it happened in an area where there is a heavy al Qaeda presence. And there some rebel commanders in eastern Aleppo who were not happy with that. They wanted this evacuation plan to go through. What effectively happened was the group that set those buses on fire sabotaged this evacuation plan and left the lives of thousands of people on both sides hanging in the balance simply because many people are still sleeping out in the cold and they're unsure if they're going to have enough food to eat tomorrow. Muhammad Lila, from the Turkish-Syrian border -- CNN.</s>ALLEN: Andrew Tabler joins us now from Washington via Skype. He's author of the book, "In the Lion's Den: an eyewitness account of Washington's battle with Syria" and what a battle it's been. Andrew -- thanks for joining us. I want to first start by talking about the fate of Aleppo. Why are they considered to be such a turning point, Aleppo, in this conflict?</s>ANDREW TABLER, AUTHOR: Well, it's Syria's largest city. It's been divided since the opposition tried to take over the city in the summer of 2012. And the government's retaking of it after squeezing it in besieged areas, perhaps the largest humanitarian disaster in terms of scale, at least, in the Syrian war. So lots of reason why it's making headlines. And even the evacuation has proven more difficult than any one imagined.</s>ALLEN: Absolutely and for months and months and months, we have seen these repeated airstrikes and the children and the elderly running for their lives and being trapped in the rubble. It just goes on and on. But you say sadly, Aleppo is not the end of this war. Talk to us about that.</s>TABLER: No, it's not. President Assad, who has pledged to retake every inch of Syrian territory does not have the troops to retake and hold all those territory. He only holds a little bit north of a third of Syrian territory at the moment. So in order to do that, he's on a very long timeline in years probably, which presents all of us with a very difficult situation, the regime is not going to go away and that's for certain. And at the same time, it's incredibly brutal in terms of the assertion of authority in terms -- to take over areas by destroying it. But even after that the problem is that so much of Syrian territories outside the government's control that becomes quite continuously chaotic, and in the case of ISIS and the al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, has (inaudible) extremists and those -- all those things spell disaster on a number of levels, not just for Syrian policy or Middle East policy but global security as well.</s>ALLEN: Let's talk about that. You say Assad doesn't have the military power outside of Damascus perhaps, to control thing but he does have Russia on his side. We have only seen him a few times. He is ensconced in Damascus. It seems like he's still so much in control. But you say not so much.</s>TABLER: Well, it's not so much the -- it's a very interesting situation where President Assad has definitely held on and many in the (inaudible) have hunkered around him. But his ability -- just the number of deployable troops, deployable manpower that can be sent to a new area particularly and to hold and it's very limited. That's the reason why so many Iranian-backed Shia militia, Lebanese, Hezbollah, Iraqi and Afghan Shia militia have been showing up and besieging Aleppo. So -- and what's interesting is with the arrival of these Iranian forces come dynamics that are not Syrian. And that's what we're seeing in the evacuation of Aleppo that the evacuation of east Aleppo, which has been besieged for months is being held up because of the evacuation from -- to Shia villages in Idlib province ran by the opposition. So it's the evacuation for evacuation and outside those Shia villages where we had the burning of the buses today.</s>ALLEN: Right, a quid pro quo in this evacuation for these poor people in Aleppo. And Andrew into all of this, a new administration led by Donald Trump. What does that do to the mix, perhaps?</s>TABLER: It's a very good question. Of course, until now President- Elect Trump has been quite adamant that he wanted to see what was possible with Russia diplomatically and otherwise in fighting terrorism in places like Syria. He's also been critical of the opposition in Syria particularly the covert program by the United States that supports the opposition. But of course, cutting that program which many think he might, would deny the United States of intelligence on this sort of -- if President Assad has the horses, so to speak, or the men to retake this territory then these moderate rebel groups are as important but he doesn't. So for at least some time the U.S. is going to have to marshal these forces and corral them and keep them away from extremists and it's going to be difficult.</s>ALLEN: So Aleppo is just one step in this horror. All right then. Well, Andrew Tabler, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you for comments.</s>TABLER: My pleasure.</s>VANIER: And for many of us the atrocities that have been taking place in Aleppo are just unimaginable. Only those who have survived know how brutal the Syrian civil war has been.</s>ALLEN: Our affiliate (inaudible) TV talked with a family that lived under heavy bombing in eastern Aleppo. They say and we quote, "We lost a lot of the beauty of life. We lost our families, our people, and our homes."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever think that the bombings and the war would stop?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Every time I head the bombs, I thought we wouldn't wake up the next morning and that we would die. If not in the evening, we would die in the evening.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was the most difficult during the war?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The hunger. During the siege, we left the dinner table always hungry. There was not enough food for everyone.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are 17 years old now. Did you go to school the last five years?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You lost five school years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love to study and I love to write. But I love most of all to draw.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you been drawing anything during the war?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. But I have nothing to draw on. I have no pen and I have nothing I can write with.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you wish for?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wish for safety and security again. Back in Syria and to all the people. I want to live as we did before without bombings and hunger. I want all children to live in safety. And that nobody will be scared anymore. Only that.</s>ALLEN: The sweet, sweet young girl caught up in all of this madness. We've also seen a glimpse of the hell Aleppo has become from a seven- year-old girl. Bana Alebad and her mother have documented their daily lives on Twitter. Turkey mediated the new evacuation deal so before the evacuations resumed on Sunday, Bana and her mom directed a tweet to Turkey's president and foreign minister.</s>VANIER: This is what they wrote. "Please, please, please make the ceasefire work and get us out now. We are so tired." The Turkish foreign minister then replied, "Difficulties on the ground won't deter us, sister. Rest assured that we are doing all that we can to get you and thousands of others to safety." Staying in the region, Jordan says a cowardly terrorist attack has left 10 people dead and dozens wounded. Gunmen opened fire on police in two locations on Sunday then moved into a castle popular with tourists. That was in the city of Karak. Four attackers were killed after a standoff with the security officers.</s>ALLEN: The victims include security members, civilians and a Canadian tourist. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is in Jordan. She has more about it.</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The attack being described as a terrorist attack by Jordanian officials has come to an end, according to a statement from the security services in Jordan. They say what is ongoing right now is clearing and calming operations around the area of the main attack around that castle in the city of Karak to the south of Jordan. They say that four attackers who they described as terrorists were killed in this operation. They say they found a large number of automatic weapons on them as well as large amounts of ammunition. Also in the house that these attackers described as terrorists were using in a town near Karak, they say that they found suicide vests and explosives there. According to Jordanian authorities, this was multiple shooting incidents that took place in southern Jordan. To the north of the city of Karak in the town of Qatraneh (ph) there, security forces came under fire and also in Karak itself. These two shooting incidents, one where a police patrol came under fire, but the deadliest most serious incident was when gunmen positioned themselves in the Karak castle that 12th century crusader castle, one of the main tourist attractions in southern Jordan. And they opened fire on a nearby police station there. They were surrounded by security forces and gun battles ensued for a few hours. This type of attack is rare in this country. Jordan really tied itself with its security and stability in the midst of this turbulent region but this key U.S. ally has been a target of terrorist organizations according to officials here who say that they have thwarted several terror plots over the past year including one by ISIS. It is still unclear who is behind this attack on Sunday, being blamed on terrorist groups by Jordan where the government says that it is investigating the identity of the attackers and what affiliations they have. Jomana Karadsheh, CNN -- Amman.</s>ALLEN: The Lebanese president and prime minister are forming a new unity government.</s>VANIER: The cabinet consists of 30 ministers from all of the country's religious sects and from most of its political parties. Among the prime minister's top priorities is protecting Lebanon from the effects of Syria's civil war.</s>SAAD HARIRI, LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This government which I describe as a national unity government when I accepted the mission of forming it will go straight to fixing what can be fixed in its short lifetime which we want it to be several months from crisis facing the people including trash collection, electricity and water. The first political mission of this government is to reach a cooperation with parliament a new electoral law.</s>ALLEN: Lebanon has had a caretaker government for more than two years now.</s>VANIER: Settlers of a West Bank outpost have decided to suspend their battle against a planned eviction.</s>ALLEN: Amona residents say they have accepted an Israeli government offer to build 52 new homes and public facilities in the area. An Israeli court ruled Amona had been built on private Palestinian land and declared the outpost illegal.</s>VANIER: North Korea's leader is usually quite outspoken about the United States. But he's been strangely silent on the presidential election. Why? We'll tell you after the break.</s>ALLEN: And a long life of fame comes to an end. A look back at Zsa Zsa Gabor's personal life and her overshadowed career.