Trump erroneously says Lebanon is on the front lines fighting Hezbollah, a partner in the Lebanese government

President Trump shakes hands with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House on Tuesday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post). President Trump lumped the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah among militants and terrorists he praised the government of Lebanon for fighting, saying during Rose Garden remarks Tuesday that the tiny Mideast nation was “on the front lines” of a shared battle against extremism. The only problem? Hezbollah is a political partner of the man standing next to Trump, visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

U.S.-led airstrikes block ISIS fighters escaping under a Hezbollah-brokered deal

A convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families begins to depart from a besieged enclave on the Lebanese-Syrian border. (Omar Sanadiki/Reuters). BEIRUT - U.S. warplanes on Wednesday blocked a convoy of hundreds of Islamic State fighters who were heading to eastern Syria under the terms of a widely criticized deal brokered by Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement. The 310 fighters were traveling to the Iraq-Syria border in a convoy of buses after Hezbollah and the Syrian government permitted them to withdraw from a besieged enclave on the Lebanon-Syria border. The deal triggered a rare outburst of public anger against Hezbollah even among some of its closest allies, notably in Iraq, which is gearing up for an offensive to reclaim Iraqi territory adjoining the area to which the fighters were relocating.

The Trump administration should not give up on removing Assad in Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on March 11. (SANA/Associated Press) By Michael G. Vickers. Michael G. Vickers served as assistant secretary of defense for special operations, low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities and undersecretary of defense for intelligence during the Bush and Obama administrations. Based on recent statements by several senior administration officials, President Trump’s Syria policy now focuses exclusively, in cooperation with Russia, on defeating the Islamic State. President Barack Obama’s goal of removing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from power is no longer a U.S. foreign policy objective.

Hezbollah takes journalists in Lebanon on a tour to prove Trump wrong

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office July 25. (The Washington Post) By Liz Sly and Suzan Haidamous. JAROUD ARSAL, Lebanon — When President Trump lumped the Lebanese Hezbollah movement together with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda last week, describing Lebanon’s government as a partner in the fight against all of them, he might not have realized quite how complicated the situation in Lebanon is. So on Saturday, Hezbollah took a party of journalists on a tour that helped explain, trumpeting the results of the militia’s recent fight against Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate in barren mountains near the northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal.

With sharp words and stealth strikes, Israel sends a message to Hezbollah and U.S.

Israel’s military carried out a massive exercise this month simulating a conflict with Hezbollah, the largest drill in nearly two decades. (Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images). JERUSALEM - Israel has flexed its military muscles in recent months as the regional balance of power has pitched further in favor of its most bitter adversaries: Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. Analysts and former senior Israeli military officers say Israel is showing that it will act with force to protect its interests, while using just enough of it to limit its enemies without sparking a war. But it’s a precarious line to tread, and even a small misstep could lead to conflict, they say. Israel is scrambling to adjust as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has taken the upper hand in his country’s six-year war, propped up by an emboldened Iran and an array of Shiite militias, including Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to back him.

U.S. warplanes are called off surveillance of ISIS convoy, at Russia’s request

Members of the Islamic State and their families are seen in a bus in Qara area in Syria's Qalamoun region on Aug. 28. (Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images) By Liz Sly. BEIRUT — At Russia’s request, the U.S. military on Friday called off its surveillance of a convoy of Islamic State fighters that has been stuck in the Syrian desert for the past 10 days, saying it is now up to the Syrian government to resolve its fate. The decision to withdraw the warplanes that have been circling over the convoy came after Syrian troops advancing through the province of Deir al-Zour passed the point where the convoy is located, leaving it behind Syrian army lines, according to a military statement.

Hezbollah accuses the U.S. of putting lives at stake by hounding ISIS convoy

This frame grab from video released on Monday and provided by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows buses gathering before a planned evacuation of Islamic State group militants, in the mountainous region of Qalamoun, Syria. (Uncredited/AP). By Liz Sly. BEIRUT — The Lebanese Hezbollah movement on Saturday accused the United States of putting at risk the lives of women and children stranded on a convoy of Islamic State fighters that has been stuck in the Syrian desert for the past three days. The accusation was the latest salvo in an escalating public relations battle between Hezbollah and the U.S. military over the fate of around 600 Islamic State fighters and their families who were permitted under a Hezbollah-brokered deal to leave an area in western Syria, near the Lebanese border, for an Islamic State-controlled town in eastern Syria.

The Islamic State is on the run in Iraq, but some major battles remain

Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces members clash last month with Islamic State militants in Tal Afar, Iraq. (Reuters). By Tamer El-Ghobashy, Joby Warrick and Mustafa Salim. IRBIL, Iraq — Iraqi security forces have freed most of northern Iraq from the grip of the Islamic State. But U.S. and Iraqi officials warn that thousands of militants remain in the country and are ready to wage a ferocious fight in a desert region bordering Syria. The bulk of the war against the Islamic State was finished when Iraqi security forces reclaimed the cities of Mosul and Tal Afar this summer. But the battle looming in western Anbar province is expected to be one of the most complex to date.

U.S.-backed forces in Syria accuse Russia of airstrike

A fighter from Deir al-Zour military council, which fights under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the village of Abu Fas, in Hasaka province. (Rodi Said/Reuters) By Louisa Loveluck. BEIRUT — The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Syria said Saturday that its partner forces have been attacked by Russian warplanes, escalating tensions on one of the country’s most complex and contested battlefields. The coalition said in a statement that an early morning airstrike targeted positions used by the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, a Kurdish-dominated militia backed by Washington, as well as the international advisers supporting them in a weeks-old offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.

As Syrian war winds down, Israel sets sights on Hezbollah

FILE - In this July 21, 2006 file photo, Israeli soldiers cover their ears as an artillery unit fires shells towards southern Lebanon from a position near Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon. With President Bashar Assad seemingly poised to survive the Syrian civil war, Israeli leaders are growing nervous about the intentions of his Iranian patrons and their emerging corridor of influence across the region. (David Guttenfelder, File/Associated Press) By Josef Federman.

Trump's plan to stop Iran in Syria is MIA

Opinion A column or article in the Opinions section (in print, this is known as the Editorial Pages). National security adviser H.R. McMaster in July. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post). Again and again, top Trump administration officials claim that a key pillar of U.S. Syria policy is to prevent Iran from expanding its power there as the Islamic State falls, a grave concern of Syrians and allies such as Jordan and Israel. But no Trump officials can explain that plan, because according to current and former officials, that ship may have already sailed.