ISIL terrorists swept through another rebel-held territory early Friday in a shock offensive in Aleppo province, cutting off the main road between Marea and Azaz

ISIL terrorists swept through another rebel-held territory early Friday in a shock offensive in Aleppo province, cutting off the main road between Marea and Azaz, 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the northeast near the Turkish border.

The surprise advance came as the terrorist group faced an offensive by a Kurdish-Arab alliance in its own heartland of Raqa province further east.

Maamoun Khateeb, a journalist and activist from Azaz, told Agence France Presse that ISIL attacked Marea early Saturday mainly from the east and north using tanks and two car bombs.

The advance has besieged around 15,000 residents remaining inside Marea, he said.

Human rights groups have warned that the ISIL advance in Aleppo has left tens of thousands of displaced Syrians trapped along the closed Turkish border.

To the east in Raqa province, warplanes from the US-led coalition conducted air strikes on ISIL positions north of Raqa city, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

But the Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting the Takfiri group north of its de facto Syrian capital had made no strategic progress on the ground, he said.