A rebel faction in the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta has denied reports its fighters are ready to lay down their arms and abandon the town of Douma, the last pocket of resistance in the Damascus suburb.

Russian news agency RIA quoted a Russian general staff official on Monday as saying Jaish al Islam had capitulated in talks with Russian negotiators. The claim was immediately rebuffed by the faction's political chief Mohammed Alloush, who called it “a lie devoid of truth”.

Syrian government forces have managed to seize 90 per cent of the former rebel stronghold after five weeks of ferocious air and ground assaults.

White Helmet works to evacuate injured civilians after air raid in Eastern Ghouta

The campaign to retake the area - besieged since 2012 - has been one of the worst episodes of violence in the entire seven-year-old conflict, with an estimated 1,600 people killed. Rebels have retaliated with some of the worst rocket fire on government-controlled neighbourhoods in years, which has left dozens dead.

A UN resolution demanding a ceasefire on 21 February has been largely ignored by all sides.

The international community has condemned Syrian President Bashar al Assad and his allies in Moscow for the alleged use of illegal barrel bombs, phosphorus munitions and chlorine gas which have left the area’s approximately 400,000 residents sheltering in basements for several weeks.

Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian woman and children run for cover amid the rubble of buildings. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Smoke rises from buildings following the attack on the village of Mesraba in the rebel-held besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascu. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian man carries a child injured. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured child receives treatment following bombings on several areas of eastern Ghouta. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A child reacts inside a hospital after relatives were injured in the bombing. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian children cry at a make-shift hospital in Douma following air strikes on the Syrian village of Mesraba. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense group extinguishing a store during airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A wounded 12-year-old Syrian boy, cries as he receives treatment at a make-shift hospital. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrians carry a wounded man. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured man covered with blood at a medical point. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures People sit a medical point in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense running to help survivors. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA

At least 6,500 Failaq al-Rahman faction fighters and their families have been bussed out of the enclave in recent days to Idlib province in Syria’s northwest in an amnesty deal similar to those struck in several other episodes of Syrian urban warfare, such as Aleppo.

Jaish al Islam, all that is left of Ghouta’s rebel fighting forces, is now making its last stand in the town of Douma, with rivalries between them widening ahead of their certain defeat.

Hamza Birqdar, the group’s spokesperson, on Monday accused Failaq al Rahman of failing to mount a shared defence of Ghouta.

“The in-fighting has been terrible”, Dr Ataya Malik, who fled the air strikes in Douma to nearby Zamalka last week, told The Independent. “It has made the situation for civilians worse.”

While eastern Ghouta is technically covered by a 2017 de-escalation deal, Mr Assad says he is targeting al-Qaeda-linked factions in the area not covered by the agreement.

Boris Johnson suggests the UK could strike Syria in response to Assad's attack on eastern Ghouta

The tide of Syria’s war, which has just entered its eighth year, turned decisively in the government’s favour after Russian military intervention in 2015.