REPORT: Evacuation of Islamic State fighters from Damascus delayed

A U.N.-sponsored deal to evacuate more than 2,000 Islamic State fighters and other militants from rebel-held parts of south Damascus has been delayed, a body that monitors the war said on Saturday, a day after a rebel leader was killed.

Buses were due to transport the fighters to Raqqa, the de facto capital of Islamic State in northern Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah's Manar TV station said.

But the deal fell through after the Jaysh al Islam rebel group's leader Zahran Alloush, through whose territory the convoy had been granted safe passage, was killed in an air strike on Friday, the broadcaster said.

The arrangement was the first of its kind between the Syrian authorities and Islamic State.

It would have marked a significant show of strength by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, increasing its chances of reasserting control over a strategic area 4 km (2.5 miles) south of the center of the capital.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an independent British-based monitoring group that tracks violence across Syria, said the evacuation had been expected to take place early Saturday but was delayed as there was now no secure territory for the militants to pass through.

Manar TV said buses arrived on Friday to pick up the fighters and at least 1,500 family members but had turned back.

The broadcaster is the official mouthpiece of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi'ite group which is a major ally of Assad and has sent its forces to fight alongside government troops.

Islamic State has a large presence in several southern neighborhoods of Damascus, including the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk.