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The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group tracking the war,
said it had seized five villages including two near the Turkish
border from other Syrian insurgents.
Islamic State announced it had captured three villages in the
area and said its fighters had nearly encircled the rebel-held
town of Marea, some 20 km (12 miles), south of the Turkish
border.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Reuters on Monday
that the two NATO allies would soon launch "comprehensive" air
operations to flush Islamic State fighters from the border
region.
The villages captured by Islamic State include two that the al
Qaeda-linked Nusra Front recently handed over to another Syrian
rebel group.
Islamic State has escalated attacks against Syrian rebels in the
northern Aleppo countryside since Turkey announced plans to
drive the group from the area.
The Nusra Front, which is hostile to Islamic State, announced
earlier this month that it would withdraw from the area where
Turkey plans to establish a buffer zone.
(Reporting by Tom Perry and Naline Malla in Beirut, and Omar
Fahmy in Cairo, editing by Dominic Evans)
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