In a report on Reuters, a ceasefire took effect on Sunday in an Islamic State pocket straddling the Syria-Lebanon border, where the militants have been fighting the Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah with the Syrian army on the other.

The Lebanese army, according to the report filing in, has announced its own ceasefire took effect at 7:00 a.m. (0500 BST) to allow for negotiations over the fate of Lebanese soldiers who are in Islamic State captivity.

However, it is equally reported that ‘the military statement did not mention a ceasefire on Syria’s side of the frontier’. According to Reuters, the Syrian army and Hezbollah announced a ceasefire in their offensive against Islamic State in Syria’s west Qalamoun region near the border.

It will be recalled that the fighting began a week ago when the Lebanese army, and the Syrian army and Hezbollah, began separate but simultaneous offensives against the Islamic State enclave.

Northeast Lebanon, according to details, saw one of the worst spillovers of Syria’s war into Lebanon in 2014, when Islamic State and other militants briefly overran the border town of Arsal. The fate of nine soldiers that Islamic State took captive then remains unknown.