Syria rebels push IS further back from northern supply route

BEIRUT: A Syrian rebel alliance has pushed Islamic State group Jihadists further away from one of its key supply routes from neighbouring Turkey, a monitoring group said on Saturday.
The Islamist rebels ousted IS from the village of Al-Bal, which it captured on Tuesday, threatening the Bab al-Salama border crossing, just 10 kilometres away, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The village’s recapture late on Friday came after heavy fighting, which killed 14 rebels and 15 IS Jihadists, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Further south, the rebels were fighting to defend the town of Marea, on the road between the crossing and the rebel-held eastern sector of the main northern city of Aleppo.
Activists said the rebels were simultaneously launching their own attacks on IS positions in the area.
“The ultimate goal for IS is to cut off this crossing,” said Abdel Rahman.
Mamun Abu Omar, head of a local pro-rebel press agency, said “IS is trying to surround the town by occupying the villages all around it.”
The rebel alliance is fighting both IS and government forces in Aleppo province, which is one of the most complex battlegrounds of Syria’s multi-front civil war. In some areas, it is supported by fighters of IS’s Jihadist rival, al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.