They also demonstrated the Islamic State group’s ability to stage major offensives and capture new areas, despite a string of recent losses in Syria and Iraq.
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Islamic State group militants have entered a Syrian opposition stronghold in the country’s north and are clashing with rebels on the edges of the town.
The advance, the largest by IS in Aleppo in two years, is part of a broader offensive operation on rebel strongholds near the Turkish border that began Thursday night.
Media reports say that more than 160,000 civilians have been trapped by the fighting.
In a sign of the rebels’ weak position, they handed over the village of Sheikh Issa adjoining Marea to rival Kurdish forces to facilitate safe passage for those fleeing, an activist based on the Syrian-Turkish border, Ammar Jello, said.
Yet rebels also shelled an SDF-held neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud in nearby Aleppo on Saturday, killing four people, the Observatory said. It said people were “terrified for their lives”.
A Syrian NGO operating in the area said the latest assault by IS had displaced 20,000 more people towards Turkey.
“Fleeing civilians are being caught in crossfire and are facing challenges to access medical services, food, water and safety”, it said in a statement Saturday.
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.
Nusra Front and Islamic State are rivals in the Syrian conflict and have been fighting each other, including near Damascus, in separate battles from those between insurgents and government forces.
“Refugees in this area originally had fled IS attacks a month and a half ago on al-Haramain camp in eastern Aleppo”, Khatib said.
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At least 22 ISIS members were killed in the clashes, where heavy weapons have been used by both sides.
