Islamic State grabs territory from Syrian rebels

BEIRUT — Militants of the Islamic State group on Friday seized a string of villages from Syrian rebels Friday near the Turkish border in rapid advances that forced the evacuation of a hospital and trapped tens of thousands of people amid heavy fighting, Syrian opposition activists and an international medical organization said.

Turkey has closed its borders with Syria for the past 15 months, and HRW says Turkish border guards enforcing the closure have at times shot at and assaulted Syrian asylum seekers as they try to reach safety in Turkey — charges the Turkish government denies.

The rebels in the area — which include mainstream opposition fighters known as the Free Syrian Army along with some ultraconservative Islamic insurgent factions — have been squeezed between Islamic State to the east and predominantly Kurdish forces to the west and south, while Turkey restricts the flow of goods and people through the border.