Aleppo evacuation 'to start within hours'

Overnight talks have reinforced a ceasefire deal to allow Syrian rebels and tens of thousands of civilians to leave the war-torn eastern city of Aleppo, the media arm of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group has said.

It says Syrian rebels will probably begin leaving their last holdout in the city "in the coming hours".

Thursday's announcement by Hezbollah's Military Media came after the ceasefire deal, mediated by Ankara and Moscow, unravelled amid fighting the previous day. Shiite Hezbollah militiamen are fighting in the Syrian civil war on the side of President Bashar Assad's forces.

Damascus and its allies have not commented on the ceasefire being back on. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the fighting stopped in the city at around 4am.

Meanwhile a Syrian army official confirmed all was ready for rebels and civilians to start leaving Aleppo "at any moment."