Islamic State Threatens to Cut Off Key Rebel Supply Route from Turkey to Aleppo

The Islamic State and rebels groups clashed in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on Monday, a day after the extremist group captured areas close to a border crossing with Turkey, threatening rival insurgents’ supply routes to Aleppo, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Islamic State seized the town of Soran Azaz and two nearby villages this weekend after battling fighters from a northern rebel alliance, which was formed last December and includes both Western-backed rebels and Islamist fighters.

Islamic State fighters are reportedly closing in on the Bab al-Salameh border crossing between the Syrian province of Aleppo and the Turkish province of Kilis, a key gateway for rebel weapons, civilian food and other supplies, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

If the Islamic State extends its reach along the Turkish border, it would also “amplify its capacity to secure supplies and smuggle in foreign fighters at a time when Turkey’s government has imposed severe restrictions on travelers along its 580-mile border with Syria,” the Washington Post reports.

The Islamic State offensive began on Friday, following its conquest of the Syrian city of Palmyra and the central Iraqi city of Ramadi late last month.

Rebels currently fighting the Islamic State in Aleppo have asked the U.S.-led coalition against the extremist group to carry out strikes to preserve rebel supply routes and prevent Aleppo from falling into extremist hands.

The rebels told the Daily Beast they had presented the coalition with coordinates of Islamic State positions, but that they hadn’t responded to their calls for airstrikes to stop the group.

SOHR said that following gains in both Homs and Aleppo provinces, ISIS now controlled half of the country’s land area.

“The latest offensive reinforces the impression that the Islamic State is regaining momentum despite more than eight months of U.S.-led airstrikes,” the Washington Post writes.

May Deadliest Month of 2015 in Syria

May was the bloodiest month so far this year in Syria, with at least 6,657 people killed throughout the country, the AFP reports, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The toll includes at least 1,285 civilians, more than half of whom were killed in government airstrikes, SOHR said.

The U.N. envoy to Syria condemned the government’s aerial strikes of civilian areas over the weekend as “completely unacceptable.”

The death toll figures represent an increase of more than 2,000 violent deaths compared with April, when 4,458 people were killed, according to AFP.

SOHR reported that rebels and Kurdish fighters made up 793 of those killed in May, while extremists from groups including the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra numbered 2,109.

The Islamic State executed 197 civilians and 104 fighters, SOHR said. Another 2,242 members of government forces were killed, most of them soldiers, the Observatory added.

Since it began in March 2011, Syria’s conflict has left over 220,000 people dead, nearly half of them civilians, but the real figure is most likely much higher, according to SOHR.

The outgoing U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos last week urged world powers to take collective action to put an end to the carnage in Syria, saying that it had descended into deeper depths of despair than had ever been thought possible.

Recommended Reads

• The Telegraph: Syria Rebels Blame U.S. for Failing to Strike Advancing ISIS Militants in Turkey Border Town
• CNN: Activists Accuse Syria of Indiscriminate Barrel Bombing
• The Washington Post: While Nobody Was Looking, the Islamic State Launched a New, Deadly Offensive
• The Wall Street Journal: Islamic State Advances Further into Syria’s Aleppo Province
• The Daily Beast: Exclusive: Key Rebels Ready to Quit U.S. Fight Vs. ISIS