‘Clashes between Daesh, Syrian rebels kill dozens’

BEIRUT — Fighting between the Daesh terror group and Syrian rebels near the Turkish border has killed dozens of people in the last two days, as Daesh militants keep up an offensive that has led to rapid territorial gains, a monitoring group said on Saturday.

Daesh militants entered the rebel-held town of Marea early on Saturday. 

They used at least two car bombs in the assault. 

Clashes continued later in the day, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An advance by the extremists on Friday that cut Marea off from another key insurgent-held town, Azaz, was their biggest territorial gain in the northern province of Aleppo for two years, the observatory said.

Daesh has been battling rebel factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army since late last year, but clashes have intensified in recent weeks.

The fighting in the past two days has killed at least 27 civilians as well as 41 combatants, the observatory said.

A US-led coalition fighting Daesh carried out air raids on some of their positions in one of the villages that the militants had captured, it said.

The coalition is meanwhile backing fighters, including the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, in an offensive against Daesh in the northern countryside of neighbouring Raqqa province, which is home to the group’s de facto capital, Raqqa city.