US-led surveillance aircraft leaves area near Daesh convoy in Syria

The US-led coalition in Syria said today its surveillance aircraft had moved away from a Daesh convoy which has been trying to reach territory in east Syria.

The Daesh convoy has split in two, with 11 buses remaining in the open desert after others turned back into government-held areas.

The Syrian government and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group offered the convoy of originally about 300 lightly armed Daesh fighters and about 300 family members safe passage in return for the militant group surrendering an enclave on the Syria-Lebanon border.

Read: Lebanon identifies soldiers killed in Daesh captivity

However, the coalition has blocked the convoy from entering Daesh territory in east Syria, near the border with Iraq, by cratering roads and destroying bridges.

“To ensure safe de-confliction of efforts to defeat ISIS [Daesh], coalition surveillance aircraft departed the adjacent airspace at the request of Russian officials during their assault on Deir ez-Zor,” the coalition said in a statement today.

The coalition said Syrian pro-regime forces had “advanced past” the convoy.

“The regime’s advance past the convoy underlines continued Syrian responsibility for the buses and terrorists,” Brigadier General Jon Braga, director of operations for the coalition said.