DOUMA: A new group of Syrian rebels and civilians prepared to leave Eastern Ghouta yesterday after the largest exodus yet from the opposition enclave, as talks stalled over the final pocket of resistance, reports AFP.

Five weeks since government troops launched a ferocious offensive on Ghouta, they hold more than 90 percent of the long-besieged opposition stronghold on the doorstep of Damascus.

The area has been ravaged by heavy bombardment and emptied by a mass exodus of tens of thousands of residents and negotiated withdrawals of rebel fighters. Late Sunday, more than 5,400 rebels, their relatives and other civilians were bussed out of a pocket of territory held by Islamist rebel group Faylaq al-Rahman, state media reported.

It was the single largest one-day evacuation yet from Eastern Ghouta, after nearly 1,000 people were bussed out from the same areas on Saturday.

More pull-outs were expected Monday from the towns of Arbin and Zamalka and the neighbouring district of Jobar, all held by Faylaq al-Rahman.

The group’s spokesman Wael Alwan on Monday confirmed that “the evacuations are continuing today”, but could not provide detailed numbers.

State news agency SANA said 10 buses were ready on Monday to take around 600 people including fighters and more than 200 children out of areas controlled by the Islamist rebel group.

The departures are part of a deal reached with the rebel group last week.

The government has repeatedly used such “reconciliation deals” to recapture territory lost to rebels during Syria’s seven-year war.

Eastern Ghouta lies within mortar range of Damascus, and rebels there had threatened to seize the capital from President Bashar al-Assad.

The regime responded by imposing a crippling half-decade siege on the suburb’s 400,000 residents, sealing off their access to food, medicine and other goods. On February 18, the regime, its ally Russia and loyalist militia launched an all-out assault, using air strikes and a sweeping ground assault to corner rebels in three isolated pockets.

More than 1,600 civilians have been killed in the operation, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

To help the regime capture the rest, Moscow began talks with the rebel groups in each area.

The first deal, with hardline Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, saw more than 4,500 people including rebels leave the town of Harasta last week.

They left by bus to the northwestern province of Idlib, which is held by an array of Islamist, jihadist and other rebel groups.