U.S. airstrikes halt ISIS convoy

BEIRUT — A convoy of Islamic State militants being evacuated from the Lebanon-Syria border was moved to another Syrian government-held area Thursday after their passage to militant-held territory was blocked by U.S.-led airstrikes.

More than 300 militants and their families are in the convoy of buses after vacating the border area as part of a Hezbollah-negotiated deal to transport them to an Islamic State-held town in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border.

The deal has drawn criticism from Iraq and the U.S., which launched airstrikes Wednesday to block the convoy’s advance.

After being stuck for hours at an exchange point, the buses moved farther north to a government-controlled area while negotiations continued in search of a new way to reach the militants’ territory.

Earlier in the day, the Islamic State handed over to Hezbollah the body of a recently captured Iranian Revolutionary Guard member as part of the deal.

The Lebanese Hezbollah group said it had received the body of Mohsen Hojaji and would conduct DNA tests before sending his remains to Iran.

The hand-over was reported by the Hezbollah-run Al-Manar TV.

The militants previously revealed the locations of the remains of Lebanese soldiers captured in 2014 in exchange for safe passage through Syrian government territory.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that he met personally with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria to ask for his help in securing a deal that would help clear the Lebanon-Syria border area and uncover the fate of the Lebanese soldiers.

“I went to President Assad … I went to Damascus,” he said, adding that he sought to persuade Assad to let the convoy pass through government territory.

“[Assad] told me, this is embarrassing for us, but no problem,” Nasrallah told supporters gathered in eastern Lebanon for a “victory rally” to celebrate the expulsion of the Islamic State from the border area.

“The Syrian government has put up with the embarrassment for the sake of Lebanon,” he said.

Nasrallah said earlier this week that the deal would include the hand-over of a Hezbollah fighter held by the Islamic State as well as the bodies of two Hezbollah members and Hojaji.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah are fighting alongside Assad’s forces.

U.S. airstrikes on Wednesday destroyed a small bridge and cratered a road, forcing the evacuating convoy to halt.

The U.S. has not targeted the evacuees themselves, but it has struck other groups of Islamic State militants in eastern Syria.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said some ambulances that were part of the convoy were able to cross into militant-held territory in Syria.

He added that Hojaji’s body was released after the ambulances carrying wounded fighters made it to areas held by the extremists.

Abdurrahman said the group is exploring secret ways in which the convoy can reach Islamic State territory without being targeted by the U.S.-led coalition.

Coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon said the U.S. and its allies continue to monitor the buses.

“The buses have not made it to ISIS-held territory and we will stick with what we said yesterday, and that is we can strike ISIS elements without harming civilians whenever and wherever we will,” Dillon said Thursday, using another name for the Islamic State.

He added that the coalition struck several vehicles in militant-held parts of Syria overnight.

Also on Thursday, Syrian activists and Iranian state TV said Syrian troops and allied forces seized a strategic mountain overlooking Deir el-Zour province, which is mostly controlled by the Islamic State.

Syrian government forces control part of the provincial capital of the same name as well as its airport, but they have been besieged by the militant group for years.

Russia, which is providing air support to Assad’s forces, said capturing the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province is the current military priority.

The Observatory said the advancing forces gained control of the Bishri Mountains on Thursday. Iran’s state-run Al-Alam TV also reported the advance.