Ceasefire halts Syria-Lebanon border fight against Daesh

BEIRUT — Lebanese soldiers in the Daesh terror group captivity since 2014 are almost certainly dead, a senior security official said on Sunday, just hours after the army announced a ceasefire to hold talks over their fate. 

The ceasefire halted the fighting in a Daesh enclave at the Syria-Lebanon border, where the militants have been fighting the Lebanese army on one front and Hizbollah with Syrian troops on the other.

Daesh has held nine Lebanese soldiers captive since 2014, when it briefly overran the northeast border town of Arsal with other militants — one of the worst spillovers of the Syrian conflict. The fate of the troops had been unknown since then. 

The Lebanese army announced its ceasefire took effect at 7am (0400 GMT). Hizbollah and the Syrian army also declared a ceasefire in their own attack against Daesh in Syria's western Qalamoun region, Hizbollah's Al Manar TV said.

The ceasefire held on both sides of the border throughout the day, as sources said plans for an evacuation of the remaining militants were under discussion. 

The fighting began a week ago when the Lebanese army and Hizbollah together with Syrian government forces, launched separate but simultaneous assaults. 

Both offensives have advanced towards the Syria-Lebanon frontier from opposite sides, hemming the militants into a small zone in the arid hills straddling the border. Lebanon's army and Hizbollah have each said the battle was nearing victory. 

The Daesh pocket marks the last militant foothold along the Syrian-Lebanese frontier. 

Defeating Daesh there would end years of insurgents from Syria's six-year war holding territory in the mountainous border region, and allow the two countries to consolidate control of the frontier. 

The head of Lebanon's internal security agency said the army and security forces had retrieved remains thought to belong six of the soldiers and were conducting digs on Lebanese land for two others. DNA tests were needed to confirm the identities.

"We believe, almost certainly, that these are the remains of the soldiers," said the general, Abbas Ibrahim, who mediated talks between the army and the militants. The whereabouts of the ninth soldier remain unknown. 

The soldiers’ families had gathered in central Beirut on Sunday, saying they would hold out hope until the last minute.

Ibrahim arrived in the afternoon to give them the news. 

“I know this is a difficult moment ... Liberating the land calls for offering our souls to this country,” he said. 

“We do not bargain. We are in the position of the victor and are imposing conditions.” 

A military source had said earlier that Daesh extremists had “succumbed ... and asked for the
negotiations”. 

Evacuation talks

Hizbollah has played a major role in fighting extremist militants along the border during Syria’s war, and has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad. 

Earlier this month, Al Nusra Front militants and a Syrian rebel group withdrew from Lebanon’s northeastern border region. They departed for insurgent territory in Syria after Hizbollah routed them in offensives with the Syrian army. 

In a speech last week, Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his Iran-backed group had begun talks with Daesh on a truce. 

The Lebanese army has said it is not coordinating its attack with the Syrian army or Shiite Hizbollah, which Washington classifies as a terrorist group. 

Any joint operation between the Lebanese army and either the Syrian army or Hizbollah would be politically sensitive in Lebanon and could jeopardise the sizeable US military aid the country receives.

Hizbollah and its allies have been pressing the Lebanese state to normalise relations with Damascus, testing Lebanon’s official policy of neutrality towards the conflict next door. Calls for closer ties come as Assad’s government has put rebels on the back foot and shored up its rule over the main urban centres in Western Syria. 

A Western diplomat praised the Lebanese army’s performance in the border battle in “a risky and complex operation” and said it would have been “simply unimaginable” a decade ago.

“We see no evidence of substantive cooperation [between the army and Hizbollah],” the diplomat added. 

A source familiar with the talks said Hizbollah and the Lebanese army had been communicating over the ceasefire and negotiations. 

Daesh fighters had asked Hizbollah and the Syrian army to let them withdraw to Syria’s eastern province of Deir Al Zor, a pro-Damascus official had said. 

Several hundred militants are still holed up in the enclave. If the deal continues smoothly, they would evacuate likely there, Ibrahim said.  Damascus has approved a Daesh-Hizbollah deal that allows for transferring the militants into eastern Syria, state media said on Sunday.

As Daesh has lost vast territories in Iraq and Syria, many of its forces have retreated to Deir Al Zor province, which remains almost entirely under its control.