BEIRUT - ISIS has launched a wide-scale offensive in northern Aleppo, splitting rebel lines in the pocket of opposition-held territory south of the Turkish border.
Heavy clashes erupted after midnight Thursday in the vicinity of the strategic town of Marea, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The monitoring NGO tracking developments in war-torn Syria reported that ISIS seized "large areas of Kaljbrin," which lies along the road from Marea to the border town of Azaz that serves as a vital supply line for rebel groups in the area that are sandwiched between Kurdish and ISIS forces.
One of the opposition factions active in the area, the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad Division, called the fighting "the most violent of its kind" to rock northern Aleppo. The group made no mention of any territorial losses, saying only that it was targeting ISIS armored vehicles.