ISIL attacks key town near Syria's border with Turkey

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have launched a new offensive against Syrian rebels north of Aleppo, gaining ground near the Turkish-Syrian border in an area where Turkey and the United States aim to create an area free of the jihadist group.

Dozens of combatants have been reported killed on both sides during fighting in and around the town of Marea, 20 kilometers south of the border with Turkey, where ISIL suicide attackers detonated four car bombs overnight, Reuters reported.
   
The attack on Marea followed the capture of a nearby rebel-held village, Umm Hosh, by ISIL fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel commander said.
   
The rebel commander said it was the heaviest ISIL attack in the area in several months. ?There is fierce fighting,? he added, declining to be identified for security reasons. ?The situation in northern Aleppo is bad.?

The observatory, a U.K.-based group that reports on the war using sources on the ground, said at least 25 rebels and eight ISIL fighters were killed in Marea.

Free Syrian Army attacked by ISIL

Late last month, the U.S. and Turkey announced their intention to provide air cover for rebels and jointly sweep ISIL from a strip of land near the border, a U.S. official said on July 27, confirming a Hürriyet Daily News report from July 25.  

The envisioned buffer would deny ISIL its last remaining access to the frontier with Turkey after a string of defeats by the People?s Defense Units (YPG) drove it from border positions further east.

In a statement dated Aug. 11, ISIL said its fighters had attacked two buildings in Marea and killed nearly 50 members of an ?apostate? militia that opposes it.
   
The rebel...