ISIL assault on Azaz On 26 May, ISIL launched a new assault, quickly collapsing the rebel frontline. ISIL captured several new villages, came to within 5 kilometers of Azaz and reduced rebel territory to less than 20 villages. Later in the evening, ISIL made more advances and cut the rebel's supply line to Mare'. 30–33 rebels and 11 ISIL fighters were killed, and another 10 rebels were captured. The surprise ISIL attack forced the evacuation of medical facilities and the fleeing of civilians from the area. An estimated 100,000–160,000 civilians were reported trapped in the rebel pocket on the border with Turkey. On 27 May, ISIL continued to advance, taking more territory and reaching the eastern outskirts of Azaz. However, a rebel counter-attack during the day, backed-up by U.S. airstrikes, recaptured four villages. In the evening, ISIL's attack on Mare' started. 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. Meanwhile, five ISIL attacks against Mare' were repelled. At the beginning of the assault on Mare', two ISIL suicide bombers hit rebel positions, after which ISIL forces managed to enter the town from the east and street fighting started. During the fighting, ISIL fighters surrounded the town's hospital for 10 hours and attempted to storm it before being repelled. At one point, a U.S. air-strike accidentally hit a rebel position killing seven rebels. On 29 May, the rebels recaptured the Scientific Research area near Azaz. By this point, 61 rebels, 47 ISIL fighters and 29 civilians had been killed since the start of the ISIL offensive. 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. 6,000 civilians fled to the Kurdish Afrin canton. 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. The SDF corridor was reopened after one day. By 30 May, of the nine villages they had initially lost, the rebels managed to recapture five, including one of the two on the road between Azaz and Mare'. On 31 May, the rebels, supported by Turkish artillery, launched an attack on the second village in