US-led airstrikes blocks evacuation of terrorists from Lebanon border

YemenExtra

US-led warplanes have struck a road being used by a convoy of Daesh terrorists and their families to reach eastern Syria in an apparent attempt to torpedo an agreement between Lebanon and the militant group aimed at cleansing the joint Syrian-Lebanese border of Takfiri terrorists.

Reuters quoted coalition spokesman Ryan Dillon as saying that the air raids took place on Wednesday east of the Humeima district, on the border between Syria’s Homs and Dayr al-Zawr provinces.

The convoy was leaving Lebanon-Syria border regions through the road in Humeima, which leads eastward to the Daesh-controlled Syrian town of Albukamal near the Iraqi border.

“We did crater the road and destroyed a small bridge to prevent this convoy from moving further east,” Dillon told Reuters by phone.

The evacuation was part of a deal reached last week between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah, on the one hand, and Daesh, on the other, in coordination with Syrian leadership following successful military operations against terrorist concentrations on Lebanon-Syria border.

Under the deal, 308 Daesh militants and 331 civilians were evacuated from the frontier and bussed to Syria’s eastern province of Dair al-Zawr, in exchange for information on the fate of nine Lebanese soldiers kidnapped by Daesh in 2014.

The deal was meant to help push the pockets of Takfiri terrorists from Lebanon-Syria border into a Daesh-held enclave in Syria so the Lebanese resistance fighters and Syrian government troops operating there could press them more easily.

Dillon, however, stressed that the US-led coalition does not recognize the evacuation deal, noting, “In accordance with the law of armed conflict … we will strike them if we are able to do so.”

According to Hezbollah, the convoy is now effectively stranded and unable to move forward into the Daesh-controlled territory.