Islamic State fighters captured territory from Syrian rebels in an area near the Turkish border on Friday, May 27 and were close to cutting off an insurgent-held town, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, according to Reuters.

The jihadists seized a number of villages around the town of Marea, north of Aleppo, and had almost fully encircled it, the British-based monitoring group said.

The advance also brought them closer to Azaz, a town 6 km from Turkey. Rebel groups battling Islamic State in the area, which Washington sees as strategically vital, have been supplied with weapons via Turkey.