IS submits to ceasefire in Syria-Lebanon border fight
BEIRUT: A ceasefire took effect yesterday in an Islamic State pocket straddling the SyriaLebanon border, where the jihadists have been fighting the Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah with the Syrian army on the other.
The Lebanese army announced that a ceasefire in its own offensive took effect at 7am (0400 GMT) but did not mention a ceasefire on Syria’s side of the frontier.
Hezbollah and the Syrian army announced a ceasefire in their assault against Islamic State in Syria’s western Qalamoun region, Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV said.
The fighting began a week ago when the Lebanese army, and Hezbollah together with the Syrian army, launched separate but simultaneous offensives against the Islamic State enclave straddling the border.
Last week, Lebanon and Hezbollah each said they had made significant gains against Islamic State militants, driving them back into a smaller part of the arid hills on the border.
Northeast Lebanon saw one of the worst spillovers of Syria’s war into Lebanon in 2014, when Islamic State and other militants briefly overran the border town of Arsal. The fate of nine soldiers that Islamic State took captive then remains unknown.
Lebanon’s army said yesterday’s ceasefire took effect to allow for negotiations over the fate of the soldiers. Mediated talks have begun with the militants, a Lebanese security source said later.
The presence of two other militant groups on the border ended earlier this month, when they withdrew to rebel territory in Syria after offensives by Hezbollah and the Syrian army.
The security source said yesterday that Hezbollah members had entered an area in western Qalamoun to confirm that the remains of the Lebanese soldiers were buried there.