More than 100,000 Syrians are trapped near the Turkish border in Aleppo province, as fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group advance in rebel-held territory.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) evacuated most of its staff and patients from the al-Salamah hospital - the organisation's largest facility in Syria - near the town of Azaz on Friday as ISIS neared.
"We are terribly concerned about the fate of our hospital and our patients, and about the estimated 100,000 people trapped between the Turkish border and active frontlines," Pablo Marco, MSF operations manager for the Middle East, said in a statement.
"For some months, the frontline has been around seven kilometres away from the hospital. Now it is only three kilometres from al-Salamah town. There is nowhere for people to flee to as the fighting gets closer."
ISIS fighters have cut a key road between rebel-held Azaz, close to the Turkish border, and nearby Marea, journalist Maamoun Khateeb told the AFP news agency from Azaz.
"This is a disaster," Khateeb said, adding that some 15,000 people were now besieged in Marea.
Turkey has closed its border to all but seriously injured Syrians.
Anthea: I remember Turkey closed it's borders to Kurds escaping from Saddam. Many Kurds were shot by Turkish border guards preventing their escape. And countless Kurds were leaft to die of cold and thirst inside the Iraqi border
Marea and Azaz both fell to opposition forces in 2012 and have been vital stops along a rebel supply route from Turkey.
ISIS has tried to advance on both towns for months. In a statement on Friday, the group said it launched a "surprise attack" and seized a series of villages near Azaz.
Also on Friday, government bombardment on rebel-controlled areas of Aleppo province left at least 15 people dead, rescue workers told AFP.
At least two people were killed in barrel bomb attacks on an opposition-controlled eastern district of Aleppo city, the civil defence - known as the White Helmets - said.
Air strikes also killed nine people in the town of Hreitan and four in Kfra Hamra.
Since fighting intensified there in 2012, Aleppo province has been transformed into a patchwork of territories held by the government, rebels, Kurds and other fighters.
Gerry Simpson, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Turkey should open the border and allow safe passage to those fleeing the ISIL offensive.
"The fact Turkey is generously hosting more than 2.5 million Syrians does not give it a right to shut its border to other endangered Syrians," he wrote in a HRW statement on Friday.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that more than 270,000 people have been killed throughout the five-year war.
More than 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees in neighbouring countries - Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq - as well as Europe, according to the UNHCR. At least 7.6 million Syrians are internally displaced within the country's borders.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/s ... 45630.html
