Hezbollah-US war of words over militant convoy escalates

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Hezbollah movement has accused the US of putting at risk the lives of women and children stranded in a convoy of Islamic State (IS) fighters that has been stuck in the Syrian desert for the past three days.

The accusation was the latest salvo in an escalating public relations battle between Hezbollah and the US military over the fate of about 600 IS fighters and their families who were permitted under a Hezbollah-brokered deal to leave an area in western Syria, near the Lebanese border, for an IS-controlled town in eastern Syria.

Instead, the US military bombed the road ahead of the convoy on Wednesday, preventing it from reaching its destination, the town of Bukamal, near the Iraqi border.

The convoy of buses has since been stranded in the desert in Syrian government-held territory and is being monitored by the US military, which has pledged to make sure it doesn’t reach IS-held territory.

On Saturday, Hezbollah said the women, children, elderly, sick and wounded on board the bus were at risk of dying because US warplanes were circling overhead, preventing the supply of food and water.

It called on the international community to intervene to “prevent a terrible massacre”. If the people in the convoy die because of bombing or lack of food, “full responsibility lies with the Americans”, Hezbollah said at the weekend.

The US military, however, has said it would not interfere if the government sent supplies to the convoy.

It said the convoy had already received at least one delivery of food and water. – Washington Post