Syrian rebels reopened a vital supply line by capturing two villages Wednesday from the Islamic State group as it came under pressure on a range of fronts in Syria and Iraq. IS has controlled large areas of both countries since declaring its self-styled "caliphate" in 2014 but is losing territory in the face of separate assaults.
In Syria, pro-government forces, rebels and a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance are all engaged in offensives to squeeze the extremists' supply lines, while Iraqi forces are advancing on the IS-held city of Fallujah. The Damascus regime has also kept up its assaults on opposition areas, particularly in second city Aleppo, where at least 15 civilians were killed on Wednesday in bombing by pro-government forces that struck near a hospital.
North of the city, rebel fighters re-opened a key supply route linking their two main bastions in Aleppo province: Marea and Azaz. In late May, IS captured several villages between the two towns, cutting off access to the Turkish border for Marea's opposition forces. But early Wednesday, rebels backed by Islamist groups launched simultaneous attacks from both Marea and Azaz, squeezing IS jihadists out of the villages of Kafr Kalbin and Kaljibrin and reopening the road, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said IS fighters even pulled back from towns and villages east of the supply route, including Dudyan near the border. In Aleppo, barrel bombs dropped from government helicopters killed 10 people near Al-Bayan hospital in Shaar neighbourhood, said the Observatory. "We have three operation rooms and all the equipment inside them was damaged because of the force of the explosion from the barrel bomb," doctor Marwan al-Radwan told AFP.
An AFP photographer saw bodies wrapped in bloodied white bags outside the hospital, while inside, the force of the blast had knocked supplies and parts of drywall onto the floor. Al-Bayan hospital said a staff member was wounded in the bombardment and the building had been evacuated.
In Iraq, government forces backed by paramilitary groups and air support from the US-led coalition are advancing within IS-held Fallujah. On Wednesday, the Iraqi fighters seized a southern neighbourhood in Fallujah city, said Sabah al-Nuaman, the spokesman for the elite counter-terrorism service fighting in the city. Held by IS since January 2014, Fallujah is one of the most important bases of the jihadist organisation and the second-largest city in Iraq still under its control.