.The villages sit in proposed 'ISIS free' buffer zone along Turkish border
- .Groups, backed by Turkey and U.S., say they can now free more villages
- .Russia continued bombing raids on oil fields in the east of Syria
- .Claim to have killed 600 jihadis - but also accused of killing 10 children
- .For full news coverage of the Islamic State visit www.dailymail.co.uk/isis
ISIS have lost another two key strategic Syrian villages after a week of bombing raids which struck at the heart of the so-called 'caliphate'.
The militants came under attack from two different rebel groups on Friday and Saturday, losing two villages which form part of a 61-mile stretch of land along the border Turkey hopes to make 'ISIS free'.
Meanwhile, ISIS continued to come under heavy bombardment from international forces, with Russian jets flying more than 70 raids - hitting three oilfields - on Friday alone.
Assault: Russia has continued to target ISIS as rebel forces along the Turkish border won back two key villages, which fall in a buffer zone the Turkish hope to establish along the border
Captured: The rebel groups say 70 jihadists were killed, and a number captured - including this 15-year-old
Syrian Turkmen rebels, working alongside Jabhat Shamiya (Levant Front), a group of Islamist nationalists, seized the villages of Harjaleh and Dalha in northern Aleppo province with support from American and Turkish warplanes.
It claimed 70 jihadists were killed in the battle, releasing a video of some of those it captured - one of them just 15-years-old.
The group claims it has also cleared the area around the village of hundreds of mines.
'The importance of liberating these two villages is that this will be the foundation to free the rest of nearby villages from the group,' said Haytham Abu Hammo, head of Jabhat Shamiya media office.
The victories followed a number of days which had seen ISIS' headquarters Raqqa, as well as a number of other factories and key positions, blasted by the Russian military.
Russia - which upped its campaign against ISIS after terrorists linked to the group claimed responsibility for downing a passenger jet in October, killing all 224 on board - says it has killed 600 fighters in the last few days.
But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts the figures at closer to 381 militants, along with 547 rebels from other groups including Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. since it began military operations in September.
Strikes: Russian bomber fires a cruise missile over Syria during this week's raids. On Friday it launched some 70 strikes against the terror group, following on from more than a 100 a day on Thursday and Friday
It says a third of the more than 1,300 people killed in the intervening weeks were civilians.
The British-based Observatory also said there were 36 people, including 10 children, killed in Russian and Syrian strikes against in the eastern Deir Ezzor province on Friday.
On the ground, ISIS were fighting regime forces around the Deir Ezzor airport.
CIVILIANS TRAPPED IN RAQQA AS LEADERS FLEE
by Abdul Taher
Islamic State terrorists have banned all residents from leaving their stronghold of Raqqa in Syria – but their leaders have fled with their families to safer areas to avoid being killed by air strikes, an activist has revealed.
Russia and France intensified air strikes over Raqqa after the bombing of a Russian airliner, which killed 224, and the attack on Paris, which left 130 dead.
A Raqqa resident gave an interview to the BBC yesterday, saying that IS had placed checkpoints at all of its main routes, preventing people from leaving. The man, who was given a false name, Abu Abdullah, to protect his identity, said: ‘It’s impossible for a civilian to leave Raqqa now. IS checkpoints cover every road in the city, only IS people can come and go now.
‘The word on the street is that IS leaders are leaving the city and sending their families to safer places like Mosul in Iraq.’
Russia and France intensified air strikes over Raqqa after the bombing of a Russian airliner, which killed 224, and the attack on Paris, which left 130 dead. Pictured: A French aircraft carrier heading for Syria
He added: ‘Ever since the attacks in Paris, we’ve had many more air strikes. They used to hit mainly around the city, but now they are hitting the centre. IS fighters are leaving their bases and are blending in with civilians in order not to be hit. This has led to more civilians being killed or injured.’
Mr Abdullah, a secret activist for an anti-IS group called Al-Sharaqiah, added: ‘If I am caught talking to you, foreign media, then the punishment for it is beheading. This has happened to over ten people over the last three months. I am risking this because it’s the only way to let the outside world know about the awful suffering inside Raqqa under IS’s rule.’
The interview gives a rare insight into what it is like living inside Raqqa. Mr Abdullah said IS agents were conducting more raids to catch informants, and the terror group’s undercover agents operated in all public places.
‘IS are arresting people on the smallest of evidences, they have undercover people everywhere in Raqqa, and spies gather information for them from all over the city,’ said Mr Abdullah.
He added that although a Kurdish onslaught may free Raqqa, residents were worried that Kurds might also commit human rights abuses against the Arab-speaking population.
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