Daesh evacuation bus convoy split into two by strikes in Syria, coalition says

A convoy evacuating members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is trying to reach areas under control of the terrorists in eastern Syria, has been split into two with some buses remaining in a desert area and others reportedly turning back into government-held regions.

The so-called US-led coalition announced the news in a statement on Sunday, saying that “one group remains in the open desert to the northwest of al-Bukamal [bordering Iraq] and the other group has headed west towards Palmyra.”

Last week, the Syrian government agreed to a deal between the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah and Daesh. The agreement allows the transport of Daesh members from the strategic and mountainous region of Qalamoun close to the border with Lebanon to eastern Syria. The ceasefire deal, which took effect on August 27, ended the anti-terror campaign on the Syrian-Lebanese border.

The convoy of 17 buses, transporting 300 lightly-armed terrorists and about 300 family members, began its journey late last month, but according to the Sunday statement, warplanes of the US-led coalition raided the convoy over the past week, stranding the vehicles.

It said some 85 Daesh members had been killed and about 40 of the group’s vehicles, moving in the vicinity of the convoy, had been targeted by airstrikes. It went on to say that the vehicles included a tank, armed technical vehicles and transport vehicles, which had been used for facilitating the movement of Daesh terrorists to the Iraqi border.

The coalition also blocked the convoy from entering Daesh-held areas in eastern Syria near Iraqi territories by making roads impassable and destroying bridges through airstrikes. The coalition said it opposed the evacuation agreement as “being a lasting solution.”

On Saturday, Hezbollah warned the United States that six buses stranded in desert included elderly people and pregnant women, accusing Washington of stopping humanitarian assistance from reaching the buses. “Only the Americans will bear the responsibility” for what happens to the wounded and elderly evacuees," the resistance movement said.

The resistance movement also announced that 11 buses had already crossed out of regions held by the Syrian government and were no longer the responsibility of Hezbollah or Damascus.

On August 19, the Lebanese military launched an anti-terror operation on the Syrian border. Hezbollah and the Syrian army also started a simultaneous offensive against Daesh in Syria’s western region of Qalamoun. The August operation came on the back of a successful military offensive by Hezbollah a month earlier against Takfiri elements on the outskirts of Lebanon’s northeastern border town of Arsal.

In recent months, Daesh has been taking heavy blows from the Syrian and Iraqi armed forces, losing swathes of territory it used to hold.

Since 2014, Hezbollah and the Lebanese military have been defending Lebanon on the country’s northeastern frontier against foreign-backed terrorist groups infiltrating from Syria.

Hezbollah fighters have fended off several attacks by Daesh inside Lebanon. They have also been providing assistance to Syrian army forces to counter the ongoing foreign-sponsored militancy.

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