The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a group of Islamic State fighters had been evacuated from the last insurgent enclave near Damascus on Sunday in a withdrawal that will restore state control over the area.
Syrian state media made no mention of a deal to allow the militants to leave the enclave centred around the Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp.
On Saturday, a Syrian military source denied that any agreement had been reached, state media said.
With the recovery of the Yarmouk enclave, the Syrian government will have crushed the last besieged rebel enclave in western Syria, though swathes of territory at the borders with Turkey, Iraq and Jordan remain outside its control.
Syrian state media made no mention of a deal to allow the militants to leave the enclave centred around the Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp
The Observatory said buses had entered the enclave after midnight to take out fighters and their families.
They had departed in the direction of the Syrian badia, a sparsely populated area to east of the capital. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Mark Potter)
The regime of President Bashar al-Assad last month launched a wide-scale offensive’A ceasefire came into effect at midday today, ostensibly for five hours,’ the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP late Saturday that the truce, which may be a prelude to the evacuation of IS fighters from the area, was still in effect.
He said the ceasefire had been negotiated by regime ally Russia and pro-government Palestinian factions.
Syria’s state-run Sana news agency however quoted a military source as denying the agreement.
Loyalist forces launched a ferocious assault in southern Damascus after capturing the Eastern Ghouta rebel stronghold near the capital in April.
They have already retaken the Qadam neighbourhood, but the jihadists retain control of around 70 percent of Yarmuk.
According to Observatory, fighting in southern Damascus has killed 484 IS members and more than 250 pro-regime fighters as well as 56 civilians.
Once a thriving district home to some 160,000 Palestinians and Syrians, Yarmuk’s population has fallen to just a few hundred people.
Syria’s war has left more than 350,000 people dead since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, before spiralling into a complex conflict involving world powers and jihadists.