Bertrand Daily Report
The War For Our Mind & Soul Continues
Subject: UPDATE: ISIS Fighters Abandon Buses for Private Vehicles
Ed Note: Two conflicting reports here....
The first one is from the State Department and the other from a Syrian Human Right's website. Apparently, the road ahead was bombed by coalition forces and is the reason why the convoy of 17 civilian buses became stranded in the Syrian desert.
----Dave Bertrand
ISIS Convoy Remains in Syrian Desert, OIR Officials Report
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
SOUTHWEST ASIA, Sept. 4, 2017 — Today is the seventh day Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters and their families have spent with a bus convoy now stalled in the Syrian desert east of Sukhnah, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported.
The convoy, initially consisting of 17 buses and other support vehicles, was halted in its move toward Iraq on Aug. 29 by coalition strikes that prevented its movement to the east.
The coalition and its Iraqi partners were not a party to the agreement between the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and ISIS to allow these experienced fighters to transit territory under Syrian regime control to the Iraqi border. Officials pointed out the coalition has been clear that in support of its Iraqi partners, it will not allow the movement of ISIS fighters near the border or onto sovereign Iraqi soil.
Food and Water Deliveries
The coalition has never struck the convoy, officials noted, and has allowed food and water deliveries to reach the stranded women and children. "The coalition will continue to take action against ISIS whenever and wherever it is able to do so without harming noncombatants, they added.
Coalition leaders have communicated a course of action to the Russians, providing the Syrian regime an opportunity to remove the women and children from this situation. "The Syrian regime is letting women and children suffer in the desert. This situation is completely on them," said Army Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the combined joint task force commander.
Over the past week, six of the 17 buses have returned westward toward Palmyra, back in Syrian regime territory, unimpeded by any coalition action, officials said, adding that the coalition continues to monitor the remaining 11 buses and communicate with Russian officials who advise the Syrian regime.
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Isis convoy ‘escape in civilian vehicles’ after US-led coalition bombs road to stop them fleeing Syria
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, members of the Islamic State group and their families are heading towards the eastern region of IS-held Deir al-Zour in 12 civilian vehicles.
A heated row has broken out over the fate of the motorcade of evacuated Islamic Statefighters and their families who are trying to reach the Iraqi border.
The Syrian government and Hezbollah had agreed that the IS convoy would leave and be allowed to travel towards the Islamic-State held region of Deir al-Zour.
The 400 Islamic militants and their families surrendered recently on Syria’s border with Lebanon.
But the US-led coalition says it was not part of the deal agreed and on 29 August bombed the road ahead of the convoy, which they claim contains “experienced fighters”.
Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition, tweeted: “We will not allow this terrorist convoy to further approach Iraq’s borders.”
He added that Islamic State militants “should be killed on the battlefield, not bussed across Syria to the Iraqi border without Iraq’s consent”.
The Combined Joint Task Force also voiced their disapproval and released a statement saying: “The coalition will not condone Isis [IS] fighters moving further east to the Iraqi border,” the coalition said in a statement.
“Relocating terrorists from one place to another, for someone else to deal with, is not a lasting solution,” it added.
The 17 buses containing the Islamic State militants are now stranded in the desert, between the towns of Humayma and al-Sukhnah, which are under Syrian government control.
Hezbollah has attacked the actions of the US-led air strike for putting lives at risk and called on the international community to prevent a “terrible massacre” if people die due to lack of food or bombing.
“They are also preventing anyone from reaching them even to provide humanitarian assistance to families, the sick and wounded and the elderly,” the Shia Islamist political organisation said in a statement, reported by The Times of Israel.
Basic supplies have been sent to the convoy and the US military said it will not intervene if the Syrian government sends food and water to the people stranded in the Syrian desert.
“We’ve observed that. We didn’t try to interfere with that,” Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the commander of the US-led coalition told the Washington Post.
“We have not tried to interfere with all approaches to the buses. And the pro-regime forces have done that and resupplied them.”
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From The Desk of Capt. Dave Bertrand (Ret.) Int'l Airline Freight Captain (DC-8 & B-727 & First Officer DC-10), U.S. Army Veteran Sergeant, Law Enforcement Background. Political Analyst and Activist to help "Make America Great Again.
My mission is to slice through the propaganda, encourage everyone to write and share important news among our network of patriots, military, law enforcement and selected news media sources (we trust). We are the pulse of America and we will prevail.
My mission is to slice through the propaganda, encourage everyone to write and share important news among our network of patriots, military, law enforcement and selected news media sources (we trust). We are the pulse of America and we will prevail.
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