Islamic State Advances Further Into Syria’s Aleppo Province
The militants are just 7 miles from main highway connecting Aleppo to Turkish border
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The extremists closed in on Aleppo and a key supply route from Turkey. The group marked a damaged helicopter, above, in Palmyra.
Photo:
Associated Press
Turkish officials expressed concern as Islamic State advanced to within 30 miles of Bab al-Salam, one of the main border crossings between Syria and Turkey.
Fighting sprawled along a 35-mile front line as various rebel forces worked to stop the progress of Islamic State, which is now just 7 miles from the main supply route from Turkey for aid and weapons to the rebel groups.
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Residents on Sunday surveyed damage from what activists said was a regime barrel bomb in Aleppo.
Photo:
abdalrhman ismail/Reuters
Rebels have been fighting Islamic State for a year and a half in northeast Aleppo province, which borders Turkey. The battle has become a microcosm of Syria’s complex war, with rebels, Islamic State and the regime vying for territory on interconnected front lines. In the increasingly partitioned country, areas controlled by Islamic State abut areas held by the regime and by the opposition rebels, with civilians often caught in the middle.
In the Aleppo province villages seized by Islamic State, the group beheaded several rebel fighters and took some of their family members hostage, according to Col. Abu Firas, a former Syrian air force colonel who defected and now serves as spokesman for the Levant Front, a local coalition of rebel groups.
Islamic State was also closing in on Bab al-Salam, also known as Oncupinar, the gateway to the Turkish border city of Kilis that serves as a way station for jihadists crossing in and out of Syria. Turkey closed the crossing in early March, citing security concerns.
It reopened in May to commercial trucks and humanitarian aid deliveries, but not to Syrian civilians wanting to cross into Turkey.
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Islamic State’s latest advance comes in the wake of conquests in May of the ancient city of Palmyra and its archaeological treasures in central Syria and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, Anbar.
Those gains showcased the group’s growing strength against a fractious opposition and weakening Syrian regime forces.
Following the capture of Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, said Islamic State now controls 50% of Syria.
On the heels of its speedy capture of Palmyra, the group’s advance into Aleppo has rebel fighters questioning the U.S.’s commitment to containing the group.
“The dependability and seriousness of the West is questionable,” said Ahmad Qura Ali, spokesman for the Aleppo-based rebel faction Ahrar al-Sham.
The timing of Islamic State’s Aleppo offensive has also prompted rebels to revive allegations the group has been coordinating with the Syrian regime.
Rebel fighters had been planning to launch an offensive against regime forces in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, in an attempt to win a yearslong battle of attrition that has severely damaged the country’s onetime economic hub.
But the arrival of Islamic State delayed those plans, as rebels scrambled Monday to divert reinforcements from the city to the new front lines. Islamic State has not been involved in the fight for the city.
Rebels said plans to strike regime strongholds in central Syria and the western coast, Mr. Assad’s ancestral homeland, have also been put on hold as fighters focus on curbing Islamic State’s gains in the north.
“The timing of this serves the interests of the regime completely,” Mr. Ali said.
Residents said Monday that government planes have increased their shelling of opposition-held areas in the city and province of Aleppo since April, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians.
—Ayla Albayrak in Istanbul contributed to this article.
Write to Raja Abdulrahim at raja.abdulrahim@wsj.comend quote from:
| Wall Street Journal | - |
Fierce battles between Islamic State and other fighters raged in the northern Syrian
province of Aleppo on Monday, a day after the extremist group seized
villages near the Turkish border and came within miles of the main
highway connecting Aleppo ...
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It is also possible if Assad has money to pay ISIS with that he will just buy off ISIS like he has before with money or oil wells or something to kill Anti-Assad rebels if he can instead of ISIS attacking him.
ISIS can be bought off in the short run but likely not in the long run because in the end Assad is Alawite Shia and not Sunni like ISIS. So, if Assad ever runs out of oil wells or money to bribe ISIS they will just kill him and all the Alawite Shias, Christians and everyone else that isn't Sunni in Southern Syria. This is millions of people at this point that would die if this happened.
It is also possible if Assad has money to pay ISIS with that he will just buy off ISIS like he has before with money or oil wells or something to kill Anti-Assad rebels if he can instead of ISIS attacking him.
ISIS can be bought off in the short run but likely not in the long run because in the end Assad is Alawite Shia and not Sunni like ISIS. So, if Assad ever runs out of oil wells or money to bribe ISIS they will just kill him and all the Alawite Shias, Christians and everyone else that isn't Sunni in Southern Syria. This is millions of people at this point that would die if this happened.
