US air strike hits Isis evacuation route after Lebanese ceasefire deal allowing fighters to flee

There has been outrage over the decision from both Iraqi and US officials, who are battling to end the militants’ grip on the last of the so-called caliphate

Lebanese army soldiers patrol the Syrian border in an area they recently took from Isis in Jurud Ras Baalbek on 28 August 2017 (AFP/Getty Images)

The US-led coalition against Isis has carried out an air strike to stop jihadists evacuated from fighting in Lebanon from reaching militant strongholds in east Syria, Central Command has said.

In their first ever publicly acknowledged evacuation deal, rather than fight to the death in the pockets of territory held on the Lebanese-Syrian border, fighters agreed to a Hezbollah-brokered evacuation plan which saw 400 men and their families bussed over the border back into Syria on Monday.

The decision was met with outrage in Iraq and by the US-led international coalition against Isis, which, along with the Syrian army, is fighting for control of the militants’ last areas of control in northeast Syria and on the Iraqi border.

“The Coalition was not a party to any agreement between the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and Isis. Russian and pro-regime counter-Isis words ring hollow when they cut deals with and allow terrorists to transit territory under their control,” a statement from US Central Command said on Wednesday.

“Isis is a global threat; relocating terrorists from one place to another for someone else to deal with, is not a lasting solution. This is just further evidence of why Coalition military action is necessary to defeat Isis in Syria.”

“Irreconcilable #ISIS terrorists should be killed on the battlefield, not bused across #Syria to the Iraqi border without #Iraq's consent,” Brett McGurk, the US presidential envoy to the anti-Isis coalition, said on Twitter.

“Our @coalition will help ensure that these terrorists can never enter #Iraq or escape from what remains of their dwindling 'caliphate',” he added.

Central Command said that the US had bombed a bridge in Syria to block the convoy’s route to Deir Ezzor.

The evacuations began Monday after twin week-long offensives by Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to remove Isis from the border region.

The deal was implicitly endorsed by the Lebanese government, although there is no official coordination between the Shia militant group and the LAF.

Two Hezbollah offensives against other Sunni militant groups in Lebanon’s north earlier this year proved successful.

Hezbollah, an important Syrian government ally, has maintained a strong presence in the parts of Syria near the border with Lebanon for several years, helping President Bashar al-Assad to recapture several rebel-held towns and villages there.