US-led coalition strikes IS convoy heading to Iraq-Syria border

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – US-led coalition planes on Wednesday conducted air strikes to block a convoy of Islamic State (IS) fighters from reaching an area in eastern Syria, a coalition spokesperson said.

The militant group agreed to evacuate territory, for the first time, from a district on the Syria-Lebanon border on Monday.

The Syrian army and Hezbollah, a Shia Lebanese group, had prepared to transport the IS members from their region to an unspecified area in eastern Syria believed to be near Deir al-Zor.

Coalition spokesperson Colonel Ryan Dillon said the strikes took place in eastern Syria “between Hamayah and al-Bukamal.”

“We did crater the road and destroyed a small bridge to prevent this convoy from moving further east,” he told Reuters by phone.

“We’re not bound by these agreements,” Dillon said, referring to the truce between Lebanon, Syria, and IS.

“They’re clearly fighters, and they’re moving to another location to fight yet again,” he continued.

“In accordance with the law of armed conflict…we will strike them if we are able to do so,” the coalition spokesperson added.

The move angered other US officials, including the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat IS Brett McGurk who said the militants “should be killed on the battlefield.”

Meanwhile, officials in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq expressed their concern over the transfer of hundreds of militants toward the Iraqi border.

McGurk reassured the coalition would “help ensure that these terrorists can never enter Iraq or escape from what remains of their dwindling ‘caliphate.’”

Editing by Ava Homa