IS convoy stranded in Syria desert after US bombing

The US-led coalition says it will keep blocking a
convoy of evacuated Islamic State militants in Syria
from reaching IS-held territory on the Iraq border.
The hundreds of fighters recently surrendered an
enclave on Syria's border with Lebanon.
They agreed with Hezbollah and the Syrian government
that they would leave with their families and head
eastwards.
But the coalition says it and Iraq were not part of the
deal and on Tuesday bombed the road ahead of the
convoy.
The buses are now stranded in an area of desert under
Syrian government control between the towns of
Humayma and al-Sukhnah.
However reports say the Syrian army and Hezbollah are
seeking a new route for the convoy and a monitoring
group says dozens of people have already left in cars
heading for the IS-held province of Deir al-Zour.
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"The coalition will not condone Isis [IS] fighters moving
further east to the Iraqi border," the coalition said in a
statement .
"Relocating terrorists from one place to another, for
someone else to deal with, is not a lasting solution," it
added.
There are some 300 IS militants on board the convoy,
described by the coalition as "experienced fighters".
The coalition says it has not bombed them because
about 300 women and children are also present, but it
says a tank, armed vehicles and other vehicles
facilitating the relocation have been targeted.
Food and water has been provided to the convoy, the
statement says, and the coalition has also - via Russia
- offered suggestions to Syria on possible ways of
rescuing the women and children.
Meanwhile the Syrian army and Hezbollah were seeking
a new route for the IS fighters and their families to
reach IS territory near the Iraq border, Reuters news
agency quoted a pro-government military source as
saying.
And the UK based monitoring group the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said dozens of
people had already left the stranded convoy in cars in a
bid to reach the IS-held city of Deir al-Zour by
themselves.
Lebanese, Syrian and Hezbollah forces agreed
ceasefires with IS militants last week days after
attacking the jihadists' final foothold in the Lebanon-
Syria border area.
More than 300 militants and their families were allowed
to leave for Albu Kamal, a town in the Syrian province
of Deir al-Zour that is 6km (4 miles) from the Iraqi
border.
After the deal was announced Lebanon's army chief,
Gen Joseph Aoun, said he had wanted to recover the
bodies of Lebanese soldiers captured in 2014 and not
risk any more lives.
But Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi criticised it.
"We fight the terrorists in Iraq. We do not send them to
Syria," he said.
Meanwhile the US envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk,
said IS militants "should be killed on the battlefield, not
bussed across Syria to the Iraqi border without Iraq's
consent".
Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes have
been battling to oust IS fighters from the towns they
control in northern Iraq.

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