Lebanon’s army has announced a ceasefire in its offensive against ISIL fighters at the country’s northeast border with Syria.
The ceasefire took effect at 7am local time (04:00 GMT) on Sunday in order to determine the fate of Lebanese soldiers who are in ISIL captivity, the military statement said.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom said that the ceasefire 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 ISIL fighters”.
“Now the Lebanese government is sending out a message that they care for their soldiers, and are trying to ensure that these soldiers can be released as quickly as possible,” he said.
The fate of nine soldiers that ISIL, also known as ISIS, took captive then remains unknown.
Syria, Hezbollah ceasefire
Shortly after, the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Syrian army, which are engaged in another offensive against ISIL on the other side of the frontier in Syria along the border with Lebanon, announced a ceasefire that took effect at the same time.
A Hezbollah military media unit said the ceasefire took place “under a full agreement to end the battle in west Qalamoun against [ISIL]”.
At the time of writing, there were no reports of ISIL fighters failing to respect submit to both ceasefires.
The Lebanese army has been battling ISIL fighters 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.
The Lebanese army said it is not coordinating its military operations with the Syrian army.
Northeast Lebanon saw one of the worst spillovers of Syria’s war into Lebanon in 2014, when ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and other armed groups briefly overran the border town of Arsal.
Any coordination between the Lebanese army and either the Syrian army or Hezbollah would be politically sensitive in Lebanon and could jeopardise the sizeable US military aid the country receives.
Last week, Lebanon and Hezbollah each announced they had made significant gains against ISIL fighters, driving them back into a smaller part of the arid hills on the border.
[Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies]
