Evacuated Daesh fighters reach Syria's Deir Ezzor

DAMASCUS - 14 September 2017: Buses carrying evacuated Daesh fighters reached Syria's Deir Ezzor on Wednesday in return for releasing a Hezbollah prisoner, a commander in the pro-Damascus alliance said.

Damascus and Hezbollah allowed nearly 300 lightly armed militants and 300 relatives to leave the Syria-Lebanon border in a surrender deal, after an offensive there last month, The Daily Mail reported.

The transfer marked the first time Daesh publicly agreed to such an evacuation from territory it held.

A US-led coalition had stopped the 17 buses from reaching Deir Ezzor for weeks and the convoy split in two. It was not immediately clear if all the buses arrived in Daesh territory in the eastern Syrian province on Wednesday.

"The deal has been completed," said the commander in the military alliance fighting in support of the Damascus government.

The buses took the route between the town of al Sukhna and Deir Ezzor, a main road that the Syrian army and allied forces captured in recent days, the commander said.

Under the evacuation deal in August, Daesh militants left their border foothold after a week-long battle in return for safe passage to Deir Ezzor province in Syria.