A solid week of US warplanes keeping a close eye on a convoy of ISIS fighters and family members in buses was meant to keep them reaching eastern ISIS territory, and the Iraqi border, at all cost. Details are still scant, but it appears this has failed.
At least a portion of the ISIS fighters appear to have left the buses and taken other vehicles after the US bombed the routes the buses were trying to take. Syrian and Iraqi officials say many, if not all, of the ISIS fighters have reached their destination on back roads.
The fate of the buses and the civilians therein are still not totally clear. After the US attacked the second route the buses were trying to take, they split up, though there are conflicting reports on the size of the splits, and where they ended up.
US officials insisted the buses are in two bunches, one still stuck at the initial spot and the other trapped closer to Palmyra after trying to take a southern route. Hezbollah said they believe some of the buses reached ISIS territory, but they had seven buses that they aren’t sure about the locations of at all.
A lot of the numbers being uncertain, however, it’s not clear how many militants, if any, remain in the buses at all. Despite that, the US is eager to make sure the buses don’t get any further east, and are still demanding that all ISIS militants be killed.