IS protects Aleppo supplies as it prepares for attack

The Islamic State group is reportedly moving resources from Aleppo to strongholds further east as it prepares for attacks following its failed bid to capture Kobane.

The group fears an attack on its strongholds by opposition forces stationed in the northern Aleppo countryside, who are backed by aircraft from the international-led coalition against IS. 

The move comes in the wake of its recent withdrawal from the northern city of Kobane, to the northeast of Aleppo on the border with Turkey.

"IS trucks are moving large amounts of wheat from the city's silos to areas under the group's control in Raqqa and Deir Ezzor governorates in east Syria," eyewitnesses from the IS-controlled city of al-Bab in eastern Aleppo told al-Araby al-Jadeed.

Grain silos in al-Bab are the largest in Aleppo, with a maximum capacity of 100,000 tonness. IS has been running them since gaining control of the city in February 2014.

IS has transported equipment to undisclosed locations in east Syria.

Warehouses belonging to the silos were hit in airstrikes in late September 2014, after IS used them to store heavy military equipment and vehicles.

Eyewitnesses in Akhtarin, an IS controlled town in northern Aleppo, reported the group had closed the local bakery and telephone company.

It then transported equipment including power generators and transmission and reception devices to undisclosed locations in east Syria.

At the same time IS fighters have moved closer to the frontline with opposition forces where sporadic clashes have recently broken out between the two sides. Opposition forces are in control of the main towns and cities in north Aleppo.

Fierce clashes were seen between IS and opposition forces including the Nusra Front in the villages of Hasajek and Tal Malid, southeast of the opposition forces controlled city of Mari. IS reportedly wants to relocate to the area after the loss it suffered in Kobane.

IS employed similar measures when withdrawing from the border city of Azaz in north Aleppo last February. It relocated equipment from al-Faisal mill, Menagh military airport, and large bakeries to areas under its control in the east Aleppo countryside before it pulled out.

This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.