Islamic State convoy in Syria appears to have turned back, U.S.-led coalition says

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - A convoy of Islamic State fighters appears to have turned back after U.S.-led airstrikes thwarted its attempt to reach territory held by the militant group in eastern Syria, the head of U.S.-led forces fighting Islamic State said on Thursday. More than 300 lightly armed IS fighters and about 300 family members were evacuated from Syria’s western border with Lebanon under a ceasefire agreement involving the ultra-hardline group, the Syrian army and the Lebanese Shi‘ite group Hezbollah. On Thursday they sought to move into IS-held territory from a new location after U.S.-led strikes on Wednesday stopped them joining forces with their jihadist comrades, a commander in the pro-Syrian government military alliance said. (For graphic on IS convoy to move, click tmsnrt.rs/2wlya8V) However, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the commander of U.S.-led forces fighting Islamic State, told a Pentagon briefing that the convoy had turned back into Syrian government territory. “When I walked into this conference about an hour ago, the buses were on the move. They had turned and had driven back into regime-held areas,” he told reporters via a video teleconference from Baghdad. “We haven’t struck the convoy. But we have struck every ISIS fighter and/or vehicle that has tried to approach that convoy. And we’ll continue to do that,” he said. The coalition opposes experienced combatants being moved to a battle zone in which it is active, and used warplanes on Wednesday to halt the convoy by damaging the road ahead. It also struck fighters on their way to meet the convoy. A commander in the pro-Syrian government military alliance said the convoy had headed north towards the town of Sukhna on Thursday after being halted in the desert and would try to reach Deir al-Zor province, close to the border with Iraq. Two sources familiar with U.S. policy on Syria said the airstrikes did not signal a more aggressive military approach, and were intended to prevent the IS fighters in the convoy reinforcing their comrades in Deir al-Zor.

But the standoff shows the tangled nature of a war theatre divided into several overlapping conflicts, and where the engagement of local, regional and global powers is further complicated by a mosaic of alliances and enmities. Six years into Syria’s civil war, in which Islamic State has seized swathes of land, the jihadist group is on the retreat across the region, losing ground to an array of foes. In Syria, the government of President Bashar al-Assad has rapidly gained ground this year as the army advanced eastwards, backed by Russia and allied Iran-backed militia including Hezbollah, towards its besieged enclave in Deir al-Zor. But in the north, the United States -- which opposes Assad, Iran and Hezbollah -- has led a coalition backing Kurdish and Arab militias as they assault Islamic State’s former Syrian capital of Raqqa.

UN Security Council spars over Lebanese peacekeeping mission

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France 24 - Lebanon has called for a UN peacekeeping force’s mandate to be renewed without changes after Washington accused its commander of being “blind” to the flow of weapons to Iran-backed Hezbollah. The peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL, which patrols Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, is up for renewal when its mandate expires on August 31. Israel and the US are pressing for improvements to the force to combat what they say is the spread of illegal arms to the region, which is dominated by Hezbollah. But Lebanon’s foreign minister, Gebran Bassil, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that renewing the force’s mandate in its present form was paramount to the country’s security. "Preserving the mandate of @unifil is necessary for peace and stability, otherwise will jeopardize efforts of @UN," Bassil added on Twitter.

‘Giving terrorists a pass’ Bassil’s comments follow sharp criticism of the peacekeeping force by officials in Washington, where Hezbollah is regarded as a terrorist organisation. Last Friday, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, accused UNIFIL’s Irish commander, Major General Michael Beary, of an “embarrassing lack of understanding” in failing to uncover Iranian weapon supplies to the Lebanese militant group. "[Beary] seems to be the only person in south Lebanon who is blind to what Hezbollah is doing," she said, adding that his view of the situation "shows that we need to have changes" in the mission. "We are not looking to change the mandate itself. We are looking to include language that clearly directs UNIFIL to do what it should have been doing for years," Haley said. "It's time the Security Council puts teeth in the UNIFIL operation," she added. "We don't need to be giving terrorists a pass."

Continuity First launched in 1978, UNIFIL was expanded after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah so that peacekeepers could deploy along the border to help Lebanese troops extend their authority into the south. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told the Security Council that he intends to look at ways for the peacekeeping force to "enhance its efforts", but that it is primarily the Lebanese military's responsibility to ensure the south is free of illegal weapons. It is not clear how the council will respond to the pressure from Washington, but several members have already called for continuity. Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said last week that the mandate should be renewed as is and that other countries had voiced the same view during a council discussion. French Deputy Ambassador Anne Gueguen, whose country is in charge of drafting a proposed renewal, said it was "of paramount importance for the stability of Lebanon and the region, and in the best interest of all, that UNIFIL keeps its mandate and is in a position to fulfill it". (FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AP)

Isis agrees to first ever evacuation deal after ceasefire on Lebanese-Syrian border

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Troops from both the Syrian army and Hezbollah have escorted Isis militants out of their territory on the border with Lebanon in the first ever publicly agreed evacuation deal the Sunni jihadists have ever struck. A pause in a week-old offensive by the Lebanese armed forces as well as Hezbollah to drive Isis from towns it has held on the Lebanese-Syrian border since 2014 saw 25 injured Isis fighters moved in ambulances to a marshalling point for an evacuation convoy, the Hezbollah-run War Media Centre said on Monday. An eyewitness told the AP that buses were being prepared to also carry the fighters’ families back to Isis’ last remaining strongholds in Eastern Syria.

The incident - which marks the first time Isis has ever publicly agreed to an evacuation deal, instead of fighting to the death - has been hailed as a dramatic surrender by Lebanese and Hezbollah officials. “We do not bargain. We are in the position of the victor and are imposing conditions,” Lebanese Internal Security General Abbas Ibrahim told reporters on Sunday. Isis agreed to a ceasefire on Sunday after fighting the Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah and the Syrian army on another, losing much of the territory in the mountainous enclave it holds on the border. Part of the evacuation deal was supposed to ensure the safe return of nine Lebanese soldiers kidnapped when Isis overran the area in 2014.

The victory has been bittersweet, however, as an army statement confirmed that eight bodies found near the town of Arsal had been identified as the missing servicemen. The news was greeted with the tears of family members who have staged a tented protest outside government offices in Beirut since their loved ones went missing three years ago. The families of those who lost relatives in suicide bomb attacks in nearby al-Qaa in 2016 condemned the deal, Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported. So far dozens of militants and six Lebanese soldiers have been killed in the drive to oust Isis from Lebanese territory.

Two Hezbollah offensives against other Sunni militant groups in Syria’s north earlier this year proved successful. There is no official coordination between the militant Shia group and the Syrian army with the Lebanese armed forces.  Hezbollah, an important Syrian government ally, has maintained a strong presence in the parts of Syria near the border with Lebanon for several years, helping President Bashar al-Assad to recapture several rebel-held towns and villages there.

Here's how much the highest-paid women in every US state earn

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Lebanon finds remains believed to be soldiers kidnapped by IS

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Beirut (AFP) - A top Lebanese security official said Sunday that authorities had located human remains believed to belong to troops kidnapped by the Islamic State group three years ago. The announcement came hours after the Lebanese army declared a ceasefire deal with IS along the border with Syria in exchange for information on the missing soldiers. The head of the General Security agency, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, said IS fighters who had surrendered led his agency and the Lebanese army to the remains. "We have removed the remains of six bodies. We are expecting the number to go up to eight," he told reporters gathered in downtown Beirut. "We believe that these remains belong to the soldiers." The troops were among 30 soldiers and police kidnapped by IS and Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate when they overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal in August 2014. Four were killed by their captors and a fifth died of his wounds while 16 were released in a prisoner swap in December 2015.

The army has said the missing troops were its "top concern" in its offensive against an estimated 600 IS fighters in the hilly border region. The missing troops were numbered at nine, but Ibrahim on Sunday only referred to the bodies of eight people and did not give details on a ninth. He said the remains would be subject to DNA testing to ensure their identities but that he was "almost certain that the case is closed." The top official spoke in downtown Beirut after informing the soldiers' families of the developments. Relatives of the hostages had gathered for hours in the blistering heat on Sunday to await news of their loved ones, sitting in tents they erected three years ago during protests to pressure the government to find the troops.

Lebanese Private-Equity Firm Chases Diaspora in Africa for Deals

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By Mohammed Sergie, bloomberg -  EuroMena Funds, a Beirut-based private-equity firm that has raised $350 million since 2006, plans to almost double assets as it seeks investments in Lebanese-owned companies operating abroad while also backing smaller businesses in its home regions. After a decade of deploying most of its capital in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, EuroMena’s latest fund has spent $55 million for stakes in a toilet-paper manufacturer in Nigeria, a Tunisia-based operator of clothing stores, and the Moroccan franchisee of French retailer Carrefour SA, said Giles de Clerck, the firm’s executive partner. Two more acquisitions are expected to be completed this year, he said.

A debut debt fund primarily targeting Africa, with a target of $200 million, is in the works, Managing Partner Romen Mathieu said. The firm also plans a $100 million private-equity fund that will invest a maximum $10 million per company in enterprises based in the Levant that generate as much as $50 million in annual revenue, he said. Both funds are expected to close in 2018. EuroMena is widening its geographical footprint to tap into a Lebanese diaspora that’s at least three times larger than the population living in Lebanon. The firm, which closed its third vehicle at $150 million last year, plans to mine this community for deals, and hitch a ride to the faster-growing economies in Africa, while mitigating some of the risk.

“Today, we would never invest with a Congolese family in Congo without having any ties with our base here in Lebanon,” Mathieu said in a phone interview from the firm’s home city. “You do 50 percent of your due diligence with three phone calls here in Beirut. You call the banker, the doctor and the lawyer, and by doing so you’ve done due diligence on the guy, his family, his grandfather, and the father of his grandfather.”

EuroMena is preparing to sell stakes in three companies from its first fund, all based in Egypt. The firm has held its positions in printing and packaging company Wataniya, software developer ITWORX Corp. and food producer Wadi Holdings SAE, through government revolutions and currency devaluations, and now sees an opportunity to “make a decent return in dollars” by exiting the investments this year, Mathieu said.