ISIS Militants Escape After Russian Raid on Idlib

Around 3,000 ISIS fighters have surrendered from the group's last holdout in Syria. (Reuters photo)
Around 3,000 ISIS fighters have surrendered from the group's last holdout in Syria. (Reuters photo)
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ISIS Militants Escape After Russian Raid on Idlib

Around 3,000 ISIS fighters have surrendered from the group's last holdout in Syria. (Reuters photo)
Around 3,000 ISIS fighters have surrendered from the group's last holdout in Syria. (Reuters photo)

Several ISIS members fled a prison in northwest Syria’s Idlib province, following Russian airstrikes coordinated with Ankara.

Russia’s defense ministry confirmed it had hit Idlib in coordination with Turkey, targeting drones and weapons stores of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants it said were intended for use in an attack on a major Russian airbase near the Mediterranean coast.

Idlib residents said Russian aircraft conducted at least 12 aerial strikes on residential areas, including a prison on its outskirts, where they said dozens of prisoners escaped. At least 10 civilians were killed and 45 injured. More than 100 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the year.

ISIS is living its "final moments" in northeast Syria after the thunderous shelling by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led international coalition against Baghouz enclave pushed 3,000 of their fellow fighters to surrender in the past two days, according to an AFP report.

ISIS launched two counter-attacks in Baghouz on forces besieging their final shred of territory in eastern Syria on but was beaten back without any progress, the SDF said. The group launched the second counter-attack in the afternoon, “taking advantage of smoke and dust over Baghouz”, the SDF media office said. “Fighting is still continuing. ISIS made no progress so far and were stopped.”

ISIS presence in Baghouz is limited to a random camp surrounded by agricultural lands near the Iraqi border.

"ISIS's final moments have started," SDF official Jiaker Amed told AFP Wednesday.

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said about 3,000 fighters had handed themselves over to the SDF. "The battle is ongoing and the final hour is now closer than ever," he said.

Coalition spokesman Sean Ryan on Wednesday said ISIS has no room to maneuver. "There is no freedom of movement at night for the enemy," he told AFP.

"Combined with the SDF ground movement against the final enclave, progress is being made and their capabilities are being severely destroyed,” Ryan added.

Since December, about 60,000 people have left the last ISIS redoubt. The identities of men, women, and children of the group families were inspected after they departed. Suspects to be extremists were moved to detention centers while children and women to camps in the northeast of the country.

Further, the group released a video late Monday on Telegram calling on followers to stay strong. "It is said we have lost -- but God's judging standard is different.”

"The battles are not over," it added.



Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah Fighters

Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
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Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah Fighters

Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.

Heavy Israeli airstrikes killed 12 people, including five Hezbollah fighters, in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, a security source in Lebanon said, in what Israel said was a warning to the Iran-backed group against trying to re-establish itself.

The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted training camps used by elite Hezbollah fighters and warehouses it used to store weapons in the Bekaa Valley region of eastern Lebanon.

The airstrikes were the deadliest on the area since a US-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel last November. Bachir Khodr, governor of the Bekaa region, said seven of the dead were Syrian nationals.

Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in last year's conflict, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with other commanders and destroying much of its arsenal.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday's strikes sent a "clear message" to Hezbollah, accusing it of planning to rebuild the capability to raid Israel through the elite Radwan force, Reuters reported.

Israel "will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding", he said. He added that strikes were also a message to the Lebanese government, saying it was responsible for upholding the ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate public response from Hezbollah or from the Lebanese government to the latest Israeli strikes.

The United States has submitted a proposal to the Lebanese government aimed at securing Hezbollah's disarmament within four months in exchange for Israel halting airstrikes and withdrawing troops from positions they still hold in south Lebanon.

Under the terms of the ceasefire brokered by the US and France, Lebanon's armed forces were to confiscate "all unauthorized arms", beginning in the area south of the Litani River - the zone closest to Israel.