U.S.-Led Coalition Allows Food, Water Deliveries to Defeated Islamic State Convoy

The U.S.-led coalition allowed deliveries of food and water to a convoy of Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorists and their alleged families that American airstrikes stranded in Syria last week after Hezbollah, the Syrian regime, and Lebanon defeated the jihadists and struck a deal allowing them safe passage to the jihadist-held territory near the border with Iraq.

Iran’s narco-terrorist proxy Hezbollah is considered an official powerful political party in Lebanon, and played a significant role in negotiating the pact with ISIS. The U.S.-led coalition has denounced the pact, saying it intentionally pushes battled-hardened jihadists away from Lebanon towards Iraq where the U.S. maintains a substantial presence.

ISIS’s recent defeat along the Syrian-Lebanon border and subsequent movement towards Iraq has been described as a boon for Hezbollah terrorists. The group’s leader described it as a “great victory,” adding the operation was “a continuation of the battle against Israel and the U.S.”

Soon after the Hezbollah-ISIS pact, the United States, echoing Iraq, condemned the agreement to allow more than 300 battled-hardened jihadists to link up with their counterparts near the Iraq-Syrian border

In a press release, the U.S.-led alliance noted that it carried out strikes to crater the road and destroy a small bridge to prevent the convoy from moving further east towards Iraq, to the dismay of Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist group.

The U.S.-led coalition also revealed that the alliance had allowed the delivery of food and water intended for stranded women and children to reach the ISIS convoy.

“The coalition will continue to take action against ISIS whenever and wherever it is able to do so without harming noncombatants,” indicated unnamed U.S.-led coalition officials, according to the Pentagon

Col. Ryan Dillon, a coalition spokesman, explained that besides some individual vehicles and jihadists identified as ISIS, the alliance has spared the convoy of buses and ambulances, allowing some of them to turn back.

American Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led coalition, has urged the Syrian regime, through its ally Russia, to remove the women and children from the situation.

“The Syrian regime is letting women and children suffer in the desert. This situation is completely on them,” declared the top U.S. general.

ISIS has used both women and children as human shields in the past. It has also convinced and coerced women to engage in battle and carry out suicide attacks. They have also used children to carry out suicide attacks.

The U.S.-led coalition is reportedly allowing the ISIS jihadists to go back into Syria, away from the Iraq-Syrian border.

In the press release, the coalition notes:

Over the past week, six of the 17 buses have returned westward toward Palmyra, back in Syrian regime territory, unimpeded by any coalition action, officials said, adding that the coalition continues to monitor the remaining 11 buses and communicate with Russian officials who advise the Syrian regime.

Lebanon, in coordination with Iran’s narco-terrorist proxy Hezbollah, which is fighting on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria, agreed to allow 670 ISIS terrorists and their alleged relatives to safely travel 300 miles in buses and ambulances from the Lebanese-Syrian border where they were defeated to a jihadi-controlled area close to the border with Iraq.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, revealed in a speech last Monday night that ISIS evacuees included 26 wounded fighters, 308 armed fighters and 331 civilians, alleged family members of the militants.

“The Islamic State fighters had been surrounded by Lebanese and Syrian forces on both sides of that border. The group made the safe-passage deal to try to win the freedom of its fighters in exchange for turning over the bodies of nine Lebanese soldiers taken prisoner in 2014,” notes the New York Times (NYT).

Lebanon, a member of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, and Iran-backed Hezbollah agreed to the deal in exchange for information about the burial site of nine Lebanese soldiers and Iranian Revolutionary Guard members the Islamic State had killed.

Nevertheless, Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the alliance, echoed Iraq when he said the pact undermined efforts to annihilate ISIS in Syria by simply relocating the jihadists.

In its press release, the international coalition noted:

The convoy, initially consisting of 17 buses and other support vehicles, was halted in its move toward Iraq on Aug. 29 by coalition strikes that prevented its movement to the east.

The coalition and its Iraqi partners were not party to the agreement between the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and ISIS to allow these experienced fighters to transit territory under Syrian regime control to the Iraqi border.

Officials pointed out the coalition has been clear that in support of its Iraqi partners, it will not allow the movement of ISIS fighters near the border or onto sovereign Iraqi soil.

Experts such as Mordechai Kedar, a Middle East scholar at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, Israel, say Hezbollah controls both the Lebanese government and military, allegations that have been denied by Beirut.