BEIRUT — A temporary humanitarian ceasefire is in place to allow women, children and the elderly to evacuate the area of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad in south Damascus, Syrian state media said on Monday citing a military source.

The Syrian army and its allies have been battling for weeks to recapture the tiny rebel enclave, the last area outside government control in or around the capital.

On Sunday, state media denied a war monitor's report that fighters had begun withdrawing from the area toward eastern Syria under a surrender deal.

The temporary ceasefire came into effect on Sunday night.

The war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported early on Monday that buses had already started leaving south Damascus for the areas in eastern Syria.

A second batch of fighters left their final Damascus stronghold overnight, a monitor said Monday, bringing the Syrian regime closer to a major milestone.

Yarmuk is the last Damascus district to escape government control and its full evacuation would bring the entire capital and its surroundings under regime control for the first time since 2012.

Government and allied forces started an operation last month to flush out rebels and other groups from a cluster of neighborhoods in southern Damascus.

They include Yarmuk, which was once home to the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria as well as the adjacent neighborhood of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. — Agencies