A route known as the Azaz corridor links rebel-held eastern Aleppo with Turkey.
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Fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces prepare to fire a mortar shell towards positions held by Islamic State fighters in northern province of Raqqa, Syria May 27, 2016.
More than 160,000 civilians were trapped by the fighting, which also forced the evacuation of one of the area’s few remaining hospitals, run by the worldwide medical organization Doctors Without Borders.
At least 100,000 people were trapped Friday along Syria’s border with Turkey after the Islamic State group swept through rebel territory in Aleppo province, rights groups and activists said.
The Islamic State news agency, Aamaq, also reported the advance, saying the Islamic State group seized six villages from the rebels.
The advances brought the militants to within a few kilometres (miles) of the rebel-held Azaz and cut off supplies to Marea further south.
A Syrian NGO operating in the area said the latest assault by IS had displaced 20,000 more people towards Turkey.
The IS offensive targeting Syrian opposition strongholds near the Turkish border began on Thursday night.
Islamic State has been battling rebel factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) since late past year, but clashes have intensified in recent weeks.
Aleppo’s northern countryside is the theatre of several separate battles between multiple warring sides in the five-year-old conflict, which has drawn in regional and world powers that back different groups. Hundreds of people fled the Fallujah area with the help of Iraqi forces who are fighting to retake the city from the Islamic State jihadist group, officials said. Now it is only three kilometers from Al Salamah town. More recently, however, Turkey has clamped down on the border.
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As the Two-Way has reported, a deadly airstrike hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo in April, killing at least 50 people.
