The Hezbollah and Syrian army assault is taking place inside Syria.

:: The Lebanese army launched an offensive against an ISIS enclave on the northeast border with Syria, a Lebanese security source said on Saturday, as Hezbollah and the Syrian army announced an assault from the Syrian side of the border.

The Lebanese army was targeting ISIS positions near the town of Ras Baalbek with rockets, artillery and helicopters, the source said. The area is the last part of the Lebanese-Syrian frontier under insurgent control. “We started advancing at 5 a.m. (0200 GMT),” the Lebanese source said.

The operation by the Syrian army and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese group, was targeting ISIS militants in the western Qalamoun region of Syria, the Hezbollah-run al-Manar television station reported, an area across the frontier from Ras Baalbek.

Last month, Hezbollah forced Nusra Front militants and Syrian rebels to leave nearby border strongholds in a joint operation with the Syrian army.

The Lebanese army, a major recipient of US military aid, did not take part in the July operation, but it has been gearing up to assault the ISIS pocket in the same mountainous region. A military source said around 500 ISIS fighters were holed up in the enclave.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun was following the army operation, called “Jroud Dawn”. “Jroud” refers to the barren, mountainous border area between Lebanon and Syria.

Lebanese security sources have previously said the army intends to fight ISIS in Lebanese territory on its own, in response to suggestions Hezbollah or the Syrian army may help it.

“Disgrace”

Engels’ mother Debbie, who released photographs of her daughter with gashes to her head requiring 14 stitches, said it would be “very sad” if Grace Mugabe was allowed to leave.

However, her daughter’s legal team — which includes Gerrie Nel, the prosecutor who secured a murder conviction against Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius — would counter such a move, she said.

“Gerrie Nel and the team have contingency plans,” she told Reuters, without elaborating. “They will run with it.”

Afriforum, an Afrikaans rights group that Nel joined in January after quitting as a state prosecutor, said it would be illegal for Pretoria to give Mugabe immunity and branded the plans a “disgrace.”

“The government has two responsibilities: one, to protect its own citizens and two, to act according to the law. And the granting of diplomatic immunity would transgress the law,” chief executive Kallie Kriel said.

Harare has made no official comment on the saga and requests for comment from Zimbabwean government officials have gone unanswered. The South African government has restricted all official comment to the police ministry.

The Engels incident is not the first time Grace Mugabe — who is lauded in official Zimbabwean media as “Mother of the Nation” — has been in legal hot water.

In 2009, a newspaper photographer in Hong Kong said Grace and her bodyguard had assaulted him. Police said the incident was reported but no charges were brought.