Islamic State fighters leave last Damascus enclave: Syrian Observatory

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 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.

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 10, 2018 shows a Syrian army tank advancing through a street in al-Hajar al-Aswad as they push against the Islamic State (IS) group in the area on the southern outskirts of the capital Damascus. (AFP)

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.

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.