Daesh asks Hizbollah, Syrian army for withdrawal from Syria-Lebanon border — source

BEIRUT — The Daesh terror group has asked the Syrian Army and its ally Hizbollah to let it withdraw from Syria's border with Lebanon to the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, an official in the pro-Assad military alliance said on Thursday.

Syrian government forces and their Lebanese ally, Iranian-backed Hizbollah, are trying to oust Daesh militants from the western Qalamoun region of Syria on Lebanon's border.

The offensive began on Saturday, coinciding with a Lebanese army campaign on Lebanon's side of the border to drive Daesh from the Ras Baalbek area in the country's northeast.

"Islamic State [Daesh] asked for negotiations and a withdrawal, and the Syrian side and Hizbollah agreed," the official said.

Deir Ezzor province, which borders Iraq to the east, is almost entirely under Daesh control. The Syrian government has held on to a pocket of territory in the provincial capital of Deir Ezzor city, and at a nearby airbase.

Both the pro-Assad military alliance and the Lebanese army have advanced towards the Syrian-Lebanese border from their respective sides. The Lebanese army has said it is not coordinating the assault with Hizbollah or the Syrian army.

Earlier this month, dozens of Nusra Front militants and thousands of Syrian refugees were transferred from Lebanon into rebel-held Syria in a deal negotiated between Hizbollah, the Syrian government and Nusra Front.

Hizbollah has provided critical military support to Syrian President Bashar Assad during Syria’s six-year-long war. 

Its involvement in Syria is a cause of political tension in Beirut and has strained Lebanon’s policy of “dissociation” from regional conflicts.

Northeastern Lebanon was the scene of one of the worst spillovers of Syria’s war into Lebanon in 2014, when Daesh and Nusra Front militants attacked the town of Arsal.