{"id":24501,"date":"2016-04-10T05:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T05:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/syrian-rebels-capture-key-isil-town-north-of\/"},"modified":"2016-04-10T05:00:20","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T05:00:20","slug":"syrian-rebels-capture-key-isil-town-north-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/syrian-rebels-capture-key-isil-town-north-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian rebels capture key ISIL town north of Aleppo"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Fighters say the seizure of al-Rai is a crucial step towards taking other ISIL strongholds in Syria.}<\/p>\n

Syrian rebels seized a strategic town from ISIL near the Turkish border north of Aleppo in another important step on the march towards the armed group’s de facto capital, Raqqa.<\/p>\n

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor confirmed that groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) captured the town of al-Rai on Thursday after fierce battles with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).<\/p>\n

“This is the beginning of the end of Daesh [ISIL]. Those who have bet the FSA had been decimated are now proven wrong. It’s a victory for the Free Syrian Army,” said Abu Abdullah from the Nour al-Din al-Zinki Brigades, which participated in the assault on the heavily defended border town.<\/p>\n

“We will continue our path to Raqqa and all the towns occupied by Daesh,” he said, using ISIL’s acronym in Arabic.<\/p>\n

After taking over al-Rai, fighters said they dismantled landmines surrounding civilian houses and farm lands.<\/p>\n

The rebels said their next move would be an advance on the ISIL-held city of al-Bab – south of al-Rai and northeast of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city.<\/p>\n

“Al-Rai is a strategic region and it’s a gateway to proceed towards the regions of Jarabulus and al-Bab,” a fighter from the Faylaq al-Sham group told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Syria war: ISIL frees majority of abducted plant staff<\/p>\n

The recent gains by the rebels is a boost to Turkey, which has sought to prevent Syrian Kurdish-led forces from expanding their stretch of territory along the border.<\/p>\n

It was the first retreat by ISIL fighters since opposition forces made major advances in the area last May and captured areas close to the Azaz border crossing with Turkey.<\/p>\n

The Amaq website, which is linked to ISIL, conceded that forces it described as “US and Turkish-backed opposition brigades” had taken al-Rai town after days of intense artillery fire.<\/p>\n

It said al-Rai fell after heavy clashes and two ISIL suicide bombings that led to many casualties among opposition forces.<\/p>\n

ISIL has employed suicide attacks to hold back offensives by the Syrian army and their allies, and by deploying small groups of fighters to disrupt supply lines.<\/p>\n

That is a change of tactics from ambushes and lightning-fast strikes after the loss of significant territory, defence analysts say.<\/p>\n

A sustained rebel advance near the Turkish border this week allowed moderate forces to capture a string of villages and eroded ISIL’s footholds in an area identified as a priority in the fight against the group.<\/p>\n

Rebels who previously struggled to make gains against ISIL in the area and had been fending off advances by Kurdish-led fighters mobilised several thousand fighters for the al-Rai attack, opposition sources said.<\/p>\n

An alliance of FSA groups formed for the offensive includes the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad and Failaq al-Sham groups.<\/p>\n

ISIL’s foothold along the Turkish border was also significantly loosened last year by US-allied Kurdish fighters of the YPG, which gained territory from the group farther east.<\/p>\n

\"Syrian<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Fighters say the seizure of al-Rai is a crucial step towards taking other ISIL strongholds in Syria.} Syrian rebels seized a strategic town from ISIL near the Turkish border north of Aleppo in another important step on the march towards the armed group’s de facto capital, Raqqa. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24501"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24501"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}