The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 500 Islamist fighters on Wednesday crossed the Turkish border and headed for the Syrian town of Azaz in northern Aleppo province. Trusted sources confirmed to the observatory that the fighters’ moving was under the supervision of the Turkish authorities.

The Syrian Observatory published also on the 15th of February that about 350 fighters of a rebel faction armed with light and heavy weapons, entered through Atamah military border crossing in the northern countryside of Aleppo. Accordingly, some of them reached the town of Tall Rifat accompanied by modern weapon, and Turkish authorities allowed them to pass and oversaw their transition process from the countryside of Idlib to the northern countryside of Aleppo through its territory.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel, told Agence France-Presse that; “At least 500 rebels have crossed the Bab al-Salam border crossing on their way to the town of Azaz, from which they want to help the insurgents in the face of gains made by Kurdish forces in the north of the province.”

On the other hand, another report by Reuters stated that Syrian rebels have brought at least 2,000 reinforcements through Turkey in the past week to bolster the fight against Kurdish-led militias north of Aleppo, rebel sources said on Thursday.

Turkish forces facilitated the transfer from one front to another over several nights, covertly escorting rebels as they exited Syria's Idlib governorate, traveled four hours across Turkey, and re-entered Syria to support the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said.

"We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment, mortars and missiles and our tanks," Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border crossing of Bab al-Salama, told Reuters, giving his alias and talking on condition of anonymity.