Militants and Refugees Return to Syria Under Cease-Fire Deal<br />Lebanese security officials helped broker the agreement and the Lebanese Red Cross accompanied the buses to the border,<br />but Hezbollah has been the driving force all along, highlighting its strength in Lebanon and Syria.<br />The agreement to bus the militants and refugees to Syria was part of a cease-fire deal between Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed force<br />and political party, and the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, now known as the Levant Liberation Committee.<br />Last month, Hezbollah launched an offensive to push Qaeda fighters from a mountainous strip of land along the<br />border with Syria near the Lebanese town of Arsal, an area long subjected to spillover from the Syrian war.<br />2, 2017<br />BEIRUT, Lebanon — More than 100 buses carrying Syrian militants, their relatives<br />and other refugees crossed from Lebanon into Syria on Wednesday, bound for a province in northern Syria that is largely controlled by jihadists.<br />"This is Hezbollah saying, ‘I am a regional player now and I need to be taken into account.’"<br />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.<br />Syrian rebels and jihadists have taken advantage of the area’s rugged geography to set up bases, attack the Lebanese Army<br />and capture prisoners from the Lebanese security services.
