ISIS Gains in Syria Threaten Rebel Links to Turkey

Islamic extremists overran three towns in northern Syria this weekend, capturing them from Western-backed Free Syrian Army rebels and Islamist brigades as Syrian warplanes struck widely across the north of the country, dropping barrel bombs on towns controlled by both competing insurgent groups.

Despite FSA claims that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, were coordinating their attacks, two of the biggest barrel bombs were dropped on the town of Al Bab, controlled by Islamic State.
The bombs dropped Saturday on a crowded market in the center of the town northeast of Aleppo left at least 71 people dead, including children, according to local political activists.
Another barrel bomb also was dropped on Aleppo, which is half-controlled by rebels aligned with the FSA killed 21 people.

It was a quick and unexpected offensive north of Aleppo, however, deep into FSA territory by IS that triggered panic among rebel commanders and Islamist allies. The Islamic extremists threatened to do what Assad’s forces have failed to pull off — namely severing the rebels’ crucial supply lines to Turkey.
IS offensives
IS fighters stormed the town of Sawran. And they captured the villages of Umm Hawash and Al-Hasiyah after intense clashes on Sunday morning before launching assaults on the towns of Marea and Azaz, which FSA fighters and Islamist militias managed to repel.

Rebel commanders said they had asked the United States to launch airstrikes on the attacking IS forces to help them to defend Marea and Azaz, which control the roads leading to the Turkish border crossing at Kilis. U.S. officials have been wary of being drawn into the conflict around Aleppo and have been focusing their airstrikes on IS targets in western Iraq and eastern Syria............voanews.com
1/6/15
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