Partial FSA victory Free Syrian Army Army of Conquest[1] CJTF-OIR Foreign intervention in behalf of Syrian rebels U.S.-led intervention against ISIL The Northern Aleppo offensive (March–June 2016) was a series of military operations launched by Syrian opposition forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and vice versa in the northern Aleppo Governorate, near the Syria–Turkey border, the city of Azaz and the town of Mare'.

The offensive is supported by airstrikes against ISIL conducted by the United States-led CJTF-OIR coalition and artillery shelling by the Turkish Armed Forces.

[32] The following day, Ahrar ash-Sham and the Sultan Murad Brigade exchanged artillery and mortar fire with ISIL.

At the end of the battle, ISIL recaptured the villages of Toqli and Mregel after inflicting heavy casualties on the rebels.

The attack was repelled by the Sham Legion and the Falcons of Mount Zawiya Brigade and an ISIL bulldozer was destroyed.

[37] On 7 April, with close air support from A-10 Thunderbolt IIs,[38] the rebels captured most of al-Rai[18] and the nearby border crossing.

[4][6] Two days later, early on 10 April, ISIL launched a counter-attack,[39] which included a three-pronged attack against the town of Mare',[40] and quickly recaptured eight villages.

The surprise ISIL attack forced the evacuation of medical facilities and the fleeing of civilians from the area.

[98] On 28 May, the Kurdish-led SDF secured Shaykh Issa, one of two towns in the Mare' pocket, to prevent its capture by ISIL forces.

[22] Meanwhile, the SDF closed the corridors it had opened earlier for civilians and wounded coming from Azaz and Mare' into Kurdish territory after rebel forces continued to attack the Kurdish-held part of Aleppo city.

[107] At the same time, the Sharia Court in Azaz issued an order that civilians would not be allowed to enter the town due to the possibility of ISIL infiltrators being among the refugees.

[110] On 31 May, the rebels, supported by Turkish artillery, launched an attack on the second village in an attempt to break the siege of Mare'.

[112] Early on 2 June, the U.S.-led Coalition reportedly parachuted a large weapons cache to the rebels surrounded in Mare'.

[114][115][116][117] Later during the day, ISIL retreated from nine other towns and villages, although the rebels had not yet entered them to take control out of fear they would be ambushed.

[118][12] In the weeks that followed, back-and-forth fighting in the area continued, with the rebels taking seven villages, including al-Rai, before they were once again recaptured by ISIL.