As the U.S. led Coalition continues to drive ISIS out of Iraq and Syria, Iraqi forces scored a victory against ISIS by defeating them at a near a U.S. base in Syria. The terrorist group recently set out to evacuate its personnel from Western Syria. The convoy is still stuck in the desert, and U.S. Warplanes were used to pick off the terrorist fighters. U.S. led surveillance has now left the area at the request of Russian officials.
Stranded convoy in Iraqi desert
In a press release from U.S. Central Command, it was reported that ISIS fighters were stranded in the Syrian Desert east of As Sukhnah.
The fighters, along with their families, were in a convoy comprised of 17 buses and support vehicles. U.S. led Coalition forces were using airstrikes to prevent the convoy from traveling further east. The convoy was formed based on an agreement among the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Syrian regime, and ISIS. U.S. Forces and Coalition partners were not party to the agreement that allowed the ISIS fighters and their families to travel to the Iraqi border. The release further said that the Coalition, in support of its Iraqi partners, would not allow travel of ISIS through Syrian regime territory toward the border although the Coalition did allow food and water to be delivered and had not attacked the convoy.
Stars and Stripes reported that ISIS attempted to evacuate hundreds of ISIS fighters leaving the terrorist fighters sitting ducks for aerial attacks. Army Colonel Ryan S. Dillon, a Coalition spokesman, said that 11 buses containing ISIS fighters and civilians were stranded in the desert after the departure of another part of the convoy.
U.S. warplanes were being used to pick off fighters who strayed too far from the convoy and away from the women and children.
Surveillance of ISIS ended
Reuters reported that the surveillance of the ISIS convoy by Coalition forces had ended. The ISIS convoy had split into two convoys with one returning to government held areas while 11 buses stayed behind.
The 300 lightly armed militants and 300 family members were offered safe passage by the Syrian regime and Hezbollah if they agreed to surrender an enclave on the Lebanese-Syrian border. Coalition forces blocked the passage of the convoy by bombing bridges and cratering roads that led to the Iraqi border next to Eastern Syria. The surveillance aircraft left the area at the request of Russian officials because the Russian forces were conducting an assault on Dawyr Az Zawyr. Previously the U.S. had warned Syria about using chemical weapons in their attacks.
Irreconcilable #ISIS terrorists should be killed on the battlefield, not bused across #Syria to the Iraqi border without #Iraq's consent 1/2
— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) August 30, 2017