Further from the latest DEBKAfile newsletter that combat as occurring the Qalamoun mountains continues, that border area between Lebanon and Syria as contested by a variety of adversaries.
"Ceasefire takes effect on Syrian-Lebanese border battles versus ISIS"
27 Aug.
"A ceasefire went into force early Sunday in two conjoined battles launched two weeks against ISIS - one fought by the Syrian army and Hizballah in the Qalamoun Mounts on the Syrian-Lebanese border, and the other by the Lebanese army against a large ISIS pocket inside its border near the northern town of Ras Baalbek . . . While the allied army managed to drive the Islamists out of large parts of the area they occupied, the Lebanese army did not get very far towards breaking up the ISIS and Nusra Front incursions."
"Hizballah reports ISIS fighters exiting Lebanese border"
28 Aug.
"According to Hizballah's TV, nearly two dozen buses and 11 ambulances Monday collected an undetermined number of ISIS fighters and their families and drove out of the mountainous area straddling the Syrian-Lebanese border. They headed for their stronghold of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria'near the Iraqi border."
"Lebanon recovers remains of soldiers kidnapped by ISIS"
28 Aug.
"The Lebanese army recovered the remains of six bodies believed to be members of a large group of soldiers and police kidnapped by ISIS and the Nusra Front three years ago, when they overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal. A ceasefire went into force Sunday on the two conjoined fronts against ISIS on both sides of the Syrian-Lebanese border in exchange for information about where the bodies were buried."
"US freezes military aid to Lebanon when Hizballah frees ISIS fighter[s]"
30 Aug.
"A furious Trump administration halted military assistance to the Lebanese army Wednesday, Aug. 30, when a Hizballah-brokered deal allowed some 300 ISIS fighters to safely leave the Lebanese border battlefield under a truce. Fifty tanks and armored vehicles which the US recently airlifted to Lebanon for battling jihadi forces occupying the northern Beqaa will be taken back. Their acquisition was funded by Saudi Arabia."
A fluidic and chaotic situation indeed! Abu Kamal too a considerable distance from the Qalamoun mountains. Abu Kamal the control of which vital to establishing a land-link between Iran and Syria!