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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| IS Presses Assault on Rebel Territory in North Syria |
| 2016-06-01 |
| [An Nahar] Fighting along Syria's northern border intensified Tuesday as the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group pressed an offensive against a key swathe of rebel territory where thousands of civilians remain trapped, a monitor said. IS swept towards the opposition strongholds of Marea and nearby Azaz in Aleppo province on Friday, forcing thousands of civilians to flee. Rebel groups in Azaz tried to launch a counter-offensive on Tuesday but failed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. IS blocked the attack with a jacket wallah, killing six rebel fighters, the Britannia-based monitor said. "The battles are intensifying," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. The U.N. relief agency said thousands of civilians were still trapped in Marea and a nearby town after Kurdish authorities closed the main road towards the autonomous Kurdish canton of Afrin to the west. "Due to the closure of the Marea-Afrin road, an estimated 7,000 civilians are effectively trapped in Marea and Sheikh Issa towns," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday. Some 2,000 people had already managed to leave Marea and Sheikh Issa before the road was closed on Sunday, OCHA said. Around 5,000 people in total have been displaced by fighting since Friday, and the situation remains "volatile and unpredictable," it said. The U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, called on gangs to "ensure the unhindered movement and protection of civilians trying to reach safety." Kurdish authorities on Sunday announced the closure of the two roads from Afrin to Marea and Azaz in response to rebel shelling of a majority-Kurdish district of the quiet provincial capital, Aleppo city. The Observatory said rebels continued to shell the Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood on Tuesday. Rebels have been shelling Sheikh Maqsud for months after an advance by Kurdish forces into rebel territory west of Marea, Abdel Rahman said. |
| Posted by:Fred |