Lebanon, Syria declare cease-fires in fight against Daesh

The cease-fire took effect at 7am local time (04:00 GMT) on Sunday in order to determine the fate of Lebanese soldiers who are in Daesh captivity, the military statement said.

According to Al Jazeera, the cease-fire was a significant development in Lebanon, given that “the army seemed very confident just a couple of days ago that they were going to rid those areas of the last remnants of Daesh terrorists”.

The fate of nine soldiers that Daesh took captive then remains unknown.

Shortly after, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah and the Syrian army, which are engaged in another offensive against Daesh on the other side of the frontier in Syria along the border with Lebanon, announced a cease-fire that took effect at the same time.

A Hezbollah media unit said the cease-fire took place “under a full agreement to end the battle in west Qalamoun against Daesh”.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported that the resistance movement has received the bodies of five of its fighters who were held by Daesh. The bodies will be identified by DNA testing later.

The Lebanese army has been battling Daesh in their last border foothold, near the town of Ras Baalbek.

The assault began last week, coinciding with the Hezbollah and the Syrian army offensive in Syria’s western Qalamoun region.

Northeast Lebanon saw one of the worst spillovers of Syria’s war into Lebanon in 2014, when Daesh and other terror groups briefly overran the border town of Arsal.

Last week, Lebanon and Hezbollah announced they had made significant gains against Daesh terrorists, driving them back into a smaller part of the arid hills on the border.