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Bulk of ISIL convoy leaves Syria's government-held area
[Al Jazeera] Most of an ISIL evacuation convoy stuck in east Syria has crossed out of government territory headed to ISIL-held Deir Az Zor province and is no longer the responsibility of the Syrian government or its ally Hezbollah, according to the Lebanese armed group.Hezbollah said in a statement on Saturday that out of 17 buses full of hundreds of lightly armed ISIL fighters and their families only six remained in government-held territory under the protection of the Syrian state and Hezbollah. The buses, which left ISIL's enclave near Syria's border with Lebanon on Monday, were in danger from US-led coalition air strikes before reaching their destination of Deir Az Zor's Al-Bukamal city, near the Iraqi border. "The Syrian state and Hezbollah have fulfilled their obligations to transfer buses out of the area of Syrian government control without exposing them," Hezbollah's statement said. Rami Abdurrahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said dozens of fighters and civilians left the buses and drove into ISIL-held parts of Deir Az Zor in 12 civilian vehicles. Omar Abu Laila, a member of the DeirEzzor 24 activist group, who currently lives in Europe, gave an account similar to that of Abdurrahman. Posted by: Fred 2017-09-03 |
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