with aleppo in hands of the government. the war is far from over because there are still pockets of rebel held areas and some of the areas of damascus. it is still of a still mate. there are still parts of the country is entirely controlled by isis which is not the focus of the government. that s one of the criticisms against them is that they are not serious taking the fight and isis as we reported taken over. it gives the government the upper hand and does not decisively end the civil war. all of it now is inherited by president elect trump. absolutely, it is going to be interesting to see what he does on day one. thank you very much. up next, we get a closer look of donald trump s reported pick of interior secretary fm someone who knows it works well.
stephanie. well, another terrible, cruel twist in this brutal war. it did appear last night that the end was in sight, that the battle for aleppo at least was all but over, but this morning they re being attacks, the cease-fire, whatever deal was done seems to have broken down and people are reporting airstrikes, bombs, shelling, shooting, tanks firing most of it in the east of aleppo. we ve been getting lots of reports, video reports on social media with people posting reports and you can hear explosions in the background. whatever the case, it is clearly not a safe place for civilians. they have been hoping to be evacuated, along with rebels at dawn this morning on buses as that evacuation has now been stopped. and really it follows on from the terrible scenes we saw of thousands of civilians trudging through the rain and the cold,
take a look. for russia please to stop the advancement of the syrian army. forget about the rest. nbc s chief global correspondent richard engel. let s start with bill nealy. fact check that statement. is the reason the west wants a cease-fire just to protect terrorists? well, there is clearly no cease-fire at the moment. it is interesting that interview was given to russian television. whatever success he s having in aleppo isn t due to his army but entirely due to the militias, iranian and iraqi militias and the russian air power that s bombarded the city for a few months. i have heard from a friend and colleague inside aleppo who said
fleeing a slaughter, fleeing the ruins of eastern aleppo, the ruins of their homes but hoping that there would, indeed, be a cease-fire. this morning, again, we re being told that a lot of people who came to be evacuated had to scatter, had to run for their lives when the shelling began. and, again, on social media lots of really heartfelt posts. one saying, cluster bombs are falling right now. aleppo is being erased. another one that simply says, please help us. please help us. and the head of the world health organization in syria, elizabeth huff, has told nbc news that doctors there are terrified. they are this morning afraid for their lives. she says it s the worst crisis that she has ever seen. that is the world health organization. and given all the crises that they deal with in africa, that really is saying something. the world is kind of powerless
u.s. government. vladimir putin is a butcher. russia was involved directly in war crimes yesterday in aleppo or gave their blessing to people involved in war crimes. that will make it tough for someone with that type of relationship with russia to be confirmed. it will depend on what plays out and what is uncovered like last night. rachel maddow has what he did and that is disturbing that he went around the advice and the request of the united states government to make money for exxon. that bothers me to no end. i heard donald trump ask apple to put a plan in the united states. as an american citizen i would like to ask donald trump to bring the products back and have them receivered in the u.s. as