Syrian rebels reopened a vital supply line by capturing two villages yesterday from the Islamic State group as it came under pressure on a range of fronts in Syria and Iraq.
IS has controlled large areas of both countries since declaring its self-styled “caliphate” in 2014 but is losing territory in the face of separate assaults.
In Syria, pro-government forces, rebels and a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance are all engaged in offensives to squeeze the extremists’ supply lines, while Iraqi forces are advancing on the IS-held city of Fallujah.
The Damascus regime has also kept up its assaults on opposition areas, particularly in second city Aleppo, where at least 15 civilians were killed on Wednesday in bombing by pro-government forces that struck near a hospital.
North of the city, rebel fighters re-opened a key supply route linking their two main bastions in Aleppo province: Marea and Azaz.
In late May, IS captured several villages between the two towns, cutting off access to the Turkish border for Marea’s opposition forces.
But early yesterday, rebels backed by Islamist groups launched simultaneous attacks from both Marea and Azaz, squeezing IS militants out of the villages of Kafr Kalbin and Kaljibrin and reopening the road, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman said IS fighters even pulled back from towns and villages east of the supply route, including Dudyan near the border.
In Aleppo, barrel bombs dropped from government helicopters killed 10 people near Al-Bayan hospital in Shaar neighbourhood, said the Observatory.
“We have three operation rooms and all the equipment inside them was damaged because of the force of the explosion from the barrel bomb,” doctor Marwan al-Radwan said.
An AFP photographer saw bodies wrapped in bloodied white bags outside the hospital, while inside, the force of the blast had knocked supplies and parts of drywall onto the floor.
Al-Bayan hospital said a staff member was wounded in the bombardment and the building had been evacuated.
The Observatory said five other civilians - including two children - were killed in attacks on the Al-Marja and Al-Maadi districts.
It later reported seven rebel fighters killed in bombardment of Aleppo’s eastern Al-Sakhur neighbourhood.
“I was expecting the regime to respect this holy month (of Ramadan) and to hold off on shelling,” said Abu Mohamed, 65.
“We’re afraid to go out into the streets in the morning or at night when we break our fast.”
IS forces had long coveted Marea and battered the town for over a year with deadly car bombs and suicide attacks.
Its advance last month forced thousands to flee Marea and sparked fears the rebels would lose one of their last major northern hubs to the militants.
“Life is gradually returning to Marea,” journalist Mamoun Khateeb told AFP from the flashpoint town.
Khateeb himself was in Azaz when the IS offensive began and was only able to return to his hometown of Marea yesterday.
“After the road was re-opened, some people have come back and we’ve even seen trucks selling vegetables enter the town,” he said.
Those who had fled to nearby villages were too afraid to return to Marea because of landmines left behind by IS as its fighters withdrew.
IS’s supply line leads from Jarabulus on the Turkish-Syrian border south through the town of Manbij and winds southeast along the Euphrates through the town of Tabqa and on to Raqa city.