U.S.-led jets strike in Syria to block Islamic State evacuation deal

[webfact]

U.S.-led jets strike in Syria to block Islamic State evacuation deal

By Sarah Dadouch and Angus McDowall

 

FILE PHOTO - A convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families begin to depart from the Lebanon-Syria border zone in Qalamoun, Syria August 28, 2017. REUTERS/ Omar Sanadiki

 

BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S.-led warplanes on Wednesday blocked a convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families from reaching territory the group holds in eastern Syria and struck some of their comrades travelling to meet them, a coalition spokesman said.

 

The strikes were aimed at stopping an evacuation deal for Islamic State fighters to leave their enclave on the Lebanon-Syria border for areas they hold in eastern Syria, arranged by the Lebanese Hezbollah group and the Syrian army.

 

It was part of a ceasefire agreed after offensives last week by the Lebanese army on one front, and the Syrian army and Hezbollah on another, that pushed Islamic State back into a small part of its enclave straddling the frontier.

 

The deal has been criticised by the coalition and by Iraq, whose army is also fighting Islamic State in areas contiguous with the eastern Syria region to which the convoy was headed.

 

The convoy, carrying 308 militants and 331 civilians according to Hezbollah, is now effectively stranded, unable to move forward into Islamic State territory.

 

It shows how easily such evacuations to other areas, which the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has increasingly used to push rebel pockets to surrender, can be derailed in a conflict with many sides.

 

A commander in the military alliance supporting Assad said the coalition had contacted the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which is accompanying the convoy and warned that if it entered Islamic State territory, it might attack.

 

Islamic State is on the back foot in both Syria and Iraq, losing swathes of its territory and its most important towns and cities after taking advantage of chaos including the six-year civil war in Syria to win ground.

 

In Syria, the U.S.-led coalition is backing an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias in the north which are assaulting the jihadist group's former de facto capital of Raqqa.

 

The Russian-backed Syrian army and allied Shi'ite militia from Iraq and Lebanon including Hezbollah have this year seized most of the central desert from the group, and are advancing eastwards to relieve the army's besieged enclave in Deir al-Zor.

 

The coalition strikes to block the convoy moving into Islamic State territory took place east of Humeima, near the edge of land held by the Syrian government, coalition spokesman Ryan Dillon told Reuters.

 

"We did crater the road and destroyed a small bridge to prevent this convoy from moving further east," Dillon told Reuters by phone.

 

He later said the coalition had struck vehicles containing Islamic State fighters that were heading to that area from deeper inside the territory they control to the east.

 

He did not know if the evacuation convoy, which contains buses of fighters and their family members, as well as ambulances carrying wounded fighters, was now in Islamic State or Syrian government territory.

 

MILITARY AID

 

On Tuesday morning a Hezbollah-run military media unit reported the convoy had reached an exchange point into Islamic State territory.

 

The evacuation deal also involved Islamic State revealing the fate of nine Lebanese soldiers it took captive in its border enclave in 2014, and surrendering Hezbollah and Syrian army prisoners and bodies in east Syria.

 

The commander in the pro-Assad military alliance said it was considering an alternative location for the convoy to cross into Islamic State territory.

 

"Now things are moving to change the place from Humeima and head north towards Sukhna," the commander said.

 

"We're not bound by these agreements," Dillon said, apparently referring to the ceasefire deal. "They're clearly fighters and they're moving to another location to fight yet again.

 

"In accordance with the law of armed conflict ... we will strike them if we are able to do so," he said, adding that direct strikes on the convoy would only take place if the militants could be separated from civilians.

 

Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition, criticised the evacuation deal in a statement early on Wednesday before the strikes were reported, saying: "Relocating terrorists from one place to another for someone else to deal with is not a lasting solution".

 

Separately, the leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, defended the Lebanese group's involvement in the evacuation deal in a statement responding to criticism of the move from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

 

Abadi said on Tuesday: "Transporting this number of terrorists from long distance to eastern Syria adjacent to Iraqi borders is unacceptable".

 

Nasrallah said it was a Hezbollah deal agreed upon by the Syrian leadership, that the fighters were few in number, and were being moved from one front Hezbollah was fighting in to another.

 

Lebanon is a major recipient of U.S. and British military aid. It says its offensive against Islamic State last week was separate to the simultaneous one made against the same pocket from inside Syria by the Syrian army and Hezbollah, regarded by the U.S. and Britain as a terrorist group.

 

On Wednesday the Lebanese army said its head General Joseph Aoun had been phoned by the commander of U.S. Central Command Joseph Votel congratulating him on the offensive and pledging to continue arming Lebanon's army.

 

(Reporting by Sarah Dadouch, Angus McDowall, Laila Bassam and John Davison in Beirut, Ahmed Tolba in Cairo and Ahmed Rashid in Baghdad; Editing by Alison Williams and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-31

[Caps]

Relocating terrorists, maybe the EU can take some in   

I don't know about blocking their movement they should have blasted them back to that stone age lifestyle they love so much.  Hopefully the coalition will get another chance   

[halloween]

So the glorious death for allah isn't looking so good these days?

[Tracyb]

The forces united against terrorists know their location....... why not continue striking them until none are left to relocate?

[Stargeezr]

Bomb these ISIL dogs like the Iraq troops were when they headed north from Kuwait. Destroy all of them. They should have no supporters or sympathy from any one in the world. Certainly no sympathy from me.

Geezer

[ilostmypassword]

45 minutes ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Bomb these ISIL dogs like the Iraq troops were when they headed north from Kuwait. Destroy all of them. They should have no supporters or sympathy from any one in the world. Certainly no sympathy from me.

Geezer

No sympathy from you? You've just ruined their day.

[craigt3365]

2 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

No sympathy from you? You've just ruined their day.

Sounds like the US had no sympathy for them either. And it definitely ruined their day. LOL

[simple1]

26 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

Sounds like the US had no sympathy for them either. And it definitely ruined their day. LOL

Yes, but US ally Lebanese Army had agreed to the relocation in order to reduce their risk of causalities and of local civilians. Seems somewhat odd that a cease fire / relocation effort can be overridden rough shod by the US, especially when local Red Cross is travelling with the convoy. Similar arrangements have been agreed in the past to re-locate Daesh fighters, presumably for the same reasons and for a future concentrated killing ground, why is this agreement different?

Edited August 31, 2017 by simple1

[craigt3365]

1 hour ago, simple1 said:

Yes, but US ally Lebanese Army had agreed to the relocation in order to reduce their risk of causalities and of local civilians. Seems somewhat odd that a cease fire / relocation effort can be overridden rough shod by the US, especially when local Red Cross is travelling with the convoy. Similar arrangements have been agreed in the past to re-locate Daesh fighters, presumably for the same reasons and for a future concentrated killing ground, why is this agreement different?

The Syria war is a complicated mess with far too many players. I can't keep up with all the twists and turns!  LOL

[Enoon]

 

"Exterminate all the brutes!"

 

Mr Kurtz, "Heart of Darkness", Joseph Conrad.

 

 

[nausea]

You're a bloodthirsty lot, well some of you anyway:

 

" ... the evacuation convoy, which contains buses of fighters and their family members, as well as ambulances carrying wounded fighters ..."

 

Bombing women and children, and ambulances, yourself is one thing, you personally deal with the moral implications and any attendant stress issues, but expecting other people to do it ... ?

 

Edited August 31, 2017 by nausea
More info.

[Lokie]

IS has never given quarter to anyone whether military or civilian, any found should be dealt with as they dealt to others - no deals.

[simple1]

9 hours ago, Lokie said:

IS has never given quarter to anyone whether military or civilian, any found should be dealt with as they dealt to others - no deals.

In fact your post is incorrect, Daesh has in some cases completed prisoner exchanges, including previously with the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah - realpolitik

Edited September 1, 2017 by simple1

[Lokie]

 

13 hours ago, simple1 said:

In fact your post is incorrect, Daesh has in some cases completed prisoner exchanges, including previously with the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah - realpolitik

NO D E A L S ! ! ! 

Edited September 2, 2017 by Lokie

[ilostmypassword]

On 9/1/2017 at 8:36 PM, Lokie said:

IS has never given quarter to anyone whether military or civilian, any found should be dealt with as they dealt to others - no deals.

 

15 hours ago, simple1 said:

In fact your post is incorrect, Daesh has in some cases completed prisoner exchanges, including previously with the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah - realpolitik

 

2 hours ago, Lokie said:

 

NO D E A L S ! ! ! 

Is that your way of acknowledging that you were in error?

[simple1]

9 hours ago, Lokie said:

 

NO D E A L S ! ! ! 

Understand the sentiment, but have to assume commanders on the ground know what's best for morale of their forces and saving lives of civilians.

 

[IAMHERE]

Evacuation?  My butt, it was a troop movement from one combat zone to another. The women and children of combatants have always moved along with the military, especially in the middle east.

[ilostmypassword]

7 hours ago, simple1 said:

Understand the sentiment, but have to assume commanders on the ground know what's best for morale of their forces and saving lives of civilians.

 

Well, since there really isn't one unified command, local commanders may act on what's best for them but not necessarily what's best for the prosecution of the war. If they can shift the battlefield elsewhere, apparently, they'll do it.

[Lokie]

15 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

 

 

Is that your way of acknowledging that you were in error?

Error - ha ha, is you who is in error.., be assured Daesh love people like you and would slit your throat in the blink of an eye, rape your women and children and kill every last one of you - NO DEALS

 

[Lokie]

42 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Well, since there really isn't one unified command, local commanders may act on what's best for them but not necessarily what's best for the prosecution of the war. If they can shift the battlefield elsewhere, apparently, they'll do it.

Actually agree with you on that

[simple1]

30 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Well, since there really isn't one unified command, local commanders may act on what's best for them but not necessarily what's best for the prosecution of the war. If they can shift the battlefield elsewhere, apparently, they'll do it.

A number of parties, including the US led coalition have previously engaged from time to time in ceasefire deals and safe passage with Islamists in endeavours to save lives. In this particular instance the US doesn't agree, though from news reports US forces are not currently attempting to kill convoy participants due to concerns for civilians, perhaps more to the point Red Cross members travelling with the convoy. Right now the final outcome is not clear.