U.S.-Led Coalition Prevents ISIS Forces from Crossing Syria-Lebanon Border

The U.S.-led coalition forces conducted airstrikes against militants of the group known as 'Islamic State' to prevent them from moving from border areas in Lebanon to eastern Syria and a town controlled by the group. On Wednesday, September 8, the French news agency reported, citing a spokesperson for the coalition against ISIS, that hundreds of militants from this group intended to reach a town in eastern Syria adjacent to Iraq following a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but ultimately failed. Ryan Dillon stated, 'We wanted to prevent them from moving east, so we bombed their route and destroyed a small bridge.' He added, 'ISIS is a global threat; moving terrorists from one area to another is one of their solutions, but this solution does not always work.' Brett McGurk, the U.S. special representative in the anti-ISIS coalition, also wrote about this: 'There is no compromise. ISIS terrorists must be killed on the battlefield, not allowed to cross through Syria against Iraq's wishes to reach its border.' He tweeted, 'Our coalition wants to ensure that these terrorists will never enter Iraq and will not be able to escape from the remaining lands of their caliphate, which is continuously shrinking.' The report from the French news agency indicates that ISIS had reached an agreement with the Shiite movement Hezbollah in Lebanon regarding their exit from Lebanon and intended to send their forces to eastern Syria under this agreement. According to this news agency, the aforementioned agreement was reached after a week of ongoing battles between Hezbollah forces and ISIS at the Syria-Lebanon border, which ended on Sunday, and the following day, ISIS militants were heading towards the Iraqi border, which the U.S.-led coalition prevented. The United States also considers Hezbollah in Lebanon a terrorist organization.