U.S.-led airstrikes block ISIS fighters escaping under a Hezbollah-negotiated deal
Source: The Washington Post
By Liz Sly and Tamer El-Ghobashy August 30 at 11:32 AM
BEIRUT — The U.S. military carried out airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday to block a convoy of hundreds of Islamic State fighters heading to eastern Syria under a widely criticized deal negotiated by Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
The 300 fighters were traveling to the Iraqi-Syrian border on buses after being allowed by Hezbollah and the Syrian government to withdraw from a besieged enclave on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
The deal had stirred rare public anger against Hezbollah even among some of its closest allies, notably in Iraq, which is gearing for an offensive to reclaim Iraqi territory adjoining the area to which the fighters were relocating.
On Wednesday morning, the U.S.-led coalition moved to prevent the convoy from reaching its destination, the Islamic State-controlled town of Bukamal on the Syrian border with Iraq, according to U.S. military spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-led-airstrikes-block-isis-fighters-escaping-under-a-hezbollah-negotiated-deal/2017/08/30/a9b40ea4-8d8c-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html?utm_term=.015d78f0ca40&wpisrc=al_alert-world&wpmk=1
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