Thousands of civilians and hundreds of aid workers are "in immediate danger" in northern Syria, an aid group as warned, after a massive onslaught by Islamic State militants split the last rebel-held enclave north of Aleppo in two.
The "entire area of A'zaz," near the Turkish border, was unsafe and civilians needed a humanitarian corridor to be allowed to get to safety, Karl Schembri, spokesman for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Middle East, told dpa on Saturday.
The jihadists stormed the defences of Marea, the main town in the southern part of the enclave, on Saturday after cutting it off from A'zaz the previous day, a monitoring group said.
Heavy battles were taking place in outer parts of the town, said Rami Abdel-Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Ammar al-Najjar, an emergency rescue worker with the Syrian Civil Defence based in Marea, told dpa that 1500-2000 families were trying to leave the town.
In a sign of the rebels' weak position, they handed over the village of Sheikh Issa adjoining Marea to rival Kurdish forces to facilitate safe passage for those fleeing, an activist based on the Syrian-Turkish border, Ammar Jello, said.
Abdel-Rahman of the Observatory confirmed the handover.
The fighting in the enclave leaves over 160,000 people who had taken refuge in the A'zaz area caught once more in a conflict zone, according to UN figures.
The threatened enclave is the last rebel-held territory north of Aleppo. In February it was cut off from Aleppo city by a Russian-backed government offensive.
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