Sep 3, 2017, 10:12 AM

Hezbollah urges US-led coalition to stop blockade of ISIL families convoy

Hezbollah urges US-led coalition to stop blockade of ISIL families convoy

BEIRUT, Sep. 03 (MNA) – Lebanon's Hezbollah warned on Saturday that if the aircraft of the international coalition against ISIL did not stop blocking buses with ISIL militants and their families in Syrian desert, people might die.

The militants and their relatives were allowed passage from the border between Syria and Lebanon to the Deir Ezzor governorate in Syria in exchange for information about captured Lebanese soldiers and Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah also noted that the Syrian authorities and Hezbollah adhered to all their commitments, while the actions of US-led coalition with regard to the convoy currently stranded in Syria appeared to contradict its stated aim of fighting ISIL.

The political movement warned that a strike on the convoy would lead to deaths of not only militants, but women, children and seniors.

The Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve said earlier in the day that it had not struck the convoy itself, only ISIL fighters and vehicles. The coalition had previously said that it had only struck the road ahead of the convoy as it tried to pass from territory held by the Syrian government into an area controlled by ISIL.

Lebanese soldiers and security forces members were kidnapped in August 2014 during the attack on the Lebanese town of Aarsal. The captives of ISIL were killed, those held by the group formerly known as al Nusra Front were freed through negotiations.

Earlier in August, the Lebanese military launched an offensive to clear the territories bordering Syria from ISIL militants. The Lebanese armed forces carried out the operation without coordination with the Syrian forces or Hezbollah militants, who also started a similar campaign to clear ISIL from the Syrian territories.

SPUTNIK/MNA

News ID 127475

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