U.S. airstrikes halt evacuation of ISIS fighters
Action derails deal negotiated by Hezbollah
BEIRUT — U.S. airstrikes blocked the advance of an Islamic State convoy carrying militants toward Iraq on Wednesday, derailing a Hezbollah-negotiated deal that removed the extremists from the Lebanon-Syria border, where they have been for years.
The airstrikes came amid U.S. criticism of the deal, reflecting a growing outrage within the Trump administration over the decision to give the militants safe passage from the battlefield instead of killing them, and Iran-backed Hezbollah’s leading role in it.
The developments also were an embarrassment for the U.S.-backed Lebanese military, which agreed to the deal and had declared victory over the militants. More strikes considered
U.S. officials said the airstrikes to disrupt the fleeing militants were intended to send a strong signal that the deal, while helping to clear the Islamic State from the border, undermined a broader U.S.led strategy for defeating the group in Syria and Iraq.
More than 48 hours after they left the Syria-Lebanon border for eastern Syria, the buses carrying 300 militants and almost as many of their relatives were stuck in a desert area on the outskirts of the largely IS-held Deir el-Zour province near the frontier with Iraq.
It is not clear how the standoff will be resolved. Syrian activists say alternate routes are being considered to bring the militants to Boukamal, an ISIS-controlled town on the Iraqi border, according to the agreement.
But officials of the U.S.led coalition said they will continue to monitor the convoy and aren’t ruling out more airstrikes.
The evacuation deal followed separate but simultaneous weeklong offensives by the Lebanese army on one side of the border and by the Syrian government and Hezbollah on the other. Hezbollah has thousands of fighters shoring up the forces of President Bashar Assad.
Iraq also reacted angrily to the evacuation, with its president saying that moving the militants to the Iraqi-Syrian border was an “insult.” ‘Obvious concerns’
Later Wednesday, the coalition said its warplanes struck a small bridge and cratered a road to hinder the convoy without targeting the evacuees. Airstrikes also hit a separate group of IS militants traveling to meet the convoy, according to Col. Ryan Dillon, a coalition spokesman.
Responding to the criticism but not addressing the airstrikes, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a statement that negotiating with the militants was the “only way” to resolve the “humanitarian and national” issue of finding the remains of nine Lebanese soldiers that the militants kidnapped in 2014.
Dillon criticized Moscow and Damascus for allowing the buses of militants to travel through territory they control.
“To say they are serious about defeating IS looks suspect right now,” Dillon told the Associated Press.
The U.S. said it wasn’t consulted as part of Lebanon’s deal with ISIS, Hezbollah and the Syrian government, and it wouldn’t have agreed to it if asked.
“We have obvious concerns, however, for any action that provides ISIS capabilities to shift its forces and thus put more civilians in harm’s way,” said Edgar Vasquez, a regional spokesman for the U.S. State Department.