Syrian rebels leaving Lebanese border area

Lebanon gets vehicles to combat extremists

BEIRUT— Hundreds of Syrian rebels and civilians started leaving the Lebanon-syria border area Monday after a deal was reached for their departure, the media arm of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said.

In Beirut, the United States handed over to the Lebanese army eight Bradley Fighting Vehicles, part of a total of 32 that will be delivered over the coming months. The military aid is aimed at helping Lebanon combat extremist groups.

At the border, buses carrying members of the Levant People’s Brigades rebel group started moving from the Lebanese border town of Arsal in the direction of the Syrian village of Fleeta.

The evacuation comes nearly two weeks after more than 7,000 Syrians, many of them al-qaida-linked fighters and their families, left Arsal following a Hezbollah offensive.

The Levant People’s Brigades, whose members did not take part in last month’s battles, will be heading to the Syrian town of Ruhaiba, about 31 miles northeast of Damascus, according to Hezbollah’s Al-manar TV.

Rebels and government fighters have lived alongside each other in Ruhaiba without fighting for more than a year following a local de-escalation agreement.

Hezbollah’s Military Media said that by Monday afternoon, some 1,500 fighters and civilians had left toward Ruhaiba. Another 300 are scheduled to leave later in the day for their government-held hometowns near the border with Lebanon.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said about 2,000 in total should enter Syria by the end of the day. The only insurgents remaining on Lebanon’s side of the border now are IS members. Hundreds of IS fighters control a stretch of land that is almost equally split between Lebanon and Syria.