Militants and Refugees Return to Syria Under Cease-Fire Deal
Lebanese security officials helped broker the agreement and the Lebanese Red Cross accompanied the buses to the border,
but Hezbollah has been the driving force all along, highlighting its strength in Lebanon and Syria.
The agreement to bus the militants and refugees to Syria was part of a cease-fire deal between Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed force
and political party, and the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, now known as the Levant Liberation Committee.
Last month, Hezbollah launched an offensive to push Qaeda fighters from a mountainous strip of land along the
border with Syria near the Lebanese town of Arsal, an area long subjected to spillover from the Syrian war.
2, 2017
BEIRUT, Lebanon — More than 100 buses carrying Syrian militants, their relatives
and other refugees crossed from Lebanon into Syria on Wednesday, bound for a province in northern Syria that is largely controlled by jihadists.
"This is Hezbollah saying, ‘I am a regional player now and I need to be taken into account.’"
But many of the refugees who returned to Syria through the cease-fire agreement had no connection to the fighting and were not from the area they were being returned to.
Syrian rebels and jihadists have taken advantage of the area’s rugged geography to set up bases, attack the Lebanese Army
and capture prisoners from the Lebanese security services.