ABC News(ANKARA, Turkey) — A gunman who shot and killed the Russian ambassador to Turkey Monday shouted in the immediate aftermath of the shooting for attention to be paid to Syria and the besieged city of Aleppo.
Video of the incident showed the gunman yelling “God is greatest” in Arabic over the fallen Russian ambassador.
“Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria. Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria,” the gunman also yelled in Turkish. “Until these places are safe, you will not taste any safety either.”
Andrey Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, was fatally shot while attending an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in the Turkish capital of Ankara, according to Russian state news agency, Tass.
A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed to state media that Karlov died after the shooting. Dramatic video and images showed the gunman shooting Karlov and shouting in the museum gallery.
There have been numerous prominent protests in Turkey against Russia’s role in Syria and the country’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The shooting occurred as Syrian rebels, the Syrian government and its allies agreed to a deal to allow thousands of civilians and fighters trapped in eastern Aleppo to leave the area.
About 7,000 people have been evacuated from the besieged city of Aleppo since Sunday night, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria.
The evacuation was allowed under the condition that about 4,000 civilians, including the wounded in Foua and Kefraya, two pro-government Shiite villages, surrounded by opposition forces, are also evacuated. Convoys of 500 evacuees, including sick civilians and orphans, left Foua and Kefraya, both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the ICRC said. More buses are expected to arrive in the two villages to continue evacuations throughout the day.
The U.N. Security Council met in New York Monday and voted unanimously for a resolution urging the immediate deployment of U.N. observers to Aleppo. French officials have said it is crucial to allow the observers to prevent “mass atrocities” by Syrian forces and militias.
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