Fighting between Islamic State (IS) and Syrian rebels near the Turkish border has killed dozens of people in the last two days, as IS militants keep up an offensive that has led to rapid territorial gains, a monitoring group said on Saturday.
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IS fighters staged two suicide bombings targeting “opposition forces” near Marea, IS said via its news agency, Aamaq.
Following the suicide bombings, ISIS militants entered Marea and fighting began inside the town, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition media outfit that tracks Syria’s civil war.
IS swept through rebel-held territory early Friday in a shock offensive in Aleppo province, cutting off the main road between Marea and Azaz, 20 kilometres to the northeast near the Turkish border.
It is thought some 15,000 residents remain in Marea. The IRC also relocated its staff from the centres and the camp to safer areas of Azaz until the situation enables them to return.
The UN fears for tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the fighting.
It said fleeing civilians were being caught in the crossfire of the IS offensive, and that they were struggling to get access to food, water and medical services.
It lies within the so-called Azaz corridor – a key rebel lifeline of supplies that links Aleppo city with the Turkish border but which has previously been severed by government and Russian air strikes.
But, he said, the Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting IS north of its de facto Syrian capital had as yet made no strategic progress on the ground.
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IS has been battling rebel factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army since late a year ago, but clashes have intensified in recent weeks.
