Syria rebels under fire from IS militants, government troops

This Sunday Feb. 15, 2015, file photo provided on by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center shows Syrian rebels firing locally made shells against the Syrian government forces, in Aleppo, Syria.
This Sunday Feb. 15, 2015, file photo provided on by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center shows Syrian rebels firing locally made shells against the Syrian government forces, in Aleppo, Syria.

BEIRUT — Islamic State militants entered a major Syrian opposition stronghold in the country's north Saturday and clashed with rebels on the edges of the the town of Marea, long considered a bastion of moderate Syrian revolutionary forces fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

It was the group's most significant advance near the Turkish border in two years, even as it loses ground elsewhere in the country and in neighboring Iraq.

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 international medical organization Doctors Without Borders.

IS fighters staged two suicide bombings targeting "opposition forces" near Marea, IS said via its news agency, Aamaq.

Following the suicide bombings, IS militants entered Marea and fighting began inside the town, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition media outfit that tracks Syria's civil war.

Meanwhile, Syrian army warplanes and helicopters pounded other opposition-held towns in Aleppo province Saturday, putting a further strain on embattled rebels fighting Assad's forces.

The IS offensive targeting Syrian opposition strongholds near the Turkish border began Thursday night.

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