The official says the cease-fire ends at noon on Monday, after which government forces will resume their operations in the Hajar al-Aswad and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk. (Representational Image)
Syrian state TV says that government forces are to resume their offensive against the Islamic State group in the south of the capital, after evacuating a group of civilians from the area. The TV quotes an unnamed military official as saying that a truce was in place to evacuate women, children and elderly people on Sunday night from Damascus’ southern neighbourhood of Hajar al-Aswad.
The official says the cease-fire ends at noon on Monday, after which government forces will resume their operations in the Hajar al-Aswad and the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, said some IS fighters were permitted to leave Yarmouk and the adjacent al-Tadamon neighbourhood. Syria’s state media denied a deal was reached to evacuate fighters.