© Photo: VOADaesh fighter
"After turning around and heading back west from the Abul Kamal area, the convoy of 17 buses containing hundreds of armed Daesh [banned in Russia] fighters and their families remains in the Syrian desert between Humayma and As Sukhnah," the coalition said in a statement on Friday.
The coalition reiterated that it did not strike the convoy itself, but said it hit Daesh fighters and vehicles, including a tank, armed technical vehicles and transport vehicles seeking to facilitate the movement of the fighters to an area near the Iraqi border.
The US-led coalition previously said it had only struck the road ahead of the convoy as it tried to pass from territory held by the Syrian government into an area controlled by Daesh.
Daesh fighters were fleeing Lebanon as part of a ceasefire deal they negotiated with the Lebanese Army, Hezbollah movement and Syrian military. The three forces had been waging a military campaign to expel Daesh terrorists from Abu-Kemal in western Syria, near the Lebanese border.
As part of the ceasefire deal, Daesh militants agreed to return the bodies of eight Lebanese soldiers they abducted in 2014, as well as the remains of Shia militia fighters killed in the battles.
In return, the Syrian government agreed to allow Daesh terrorists to relocate from Abu-Kemal to Syria's northeastern Deir ez-Zor province.
But US-led coalition's airstrikes on Tuesday prevented the terrorists' transit to Deir ez-Zor.
Comment: See also: US threatens to bomb ISIS convoy that agreed to leave Lebanon under Hezbollah deal