LATEST: 1st Post-Resolution UN Aid Crosses Border Into Syria

Further confirmation on Thursday that an effective non-aggression arrangement between the jihadist Islamic State and the Assad regime has been broken, as Islamic State fighters attacked a major military base in northern Syria.

Activists said the jihadists took over part of the Division 17 base near Raqqa, the city held by the Islamic State since last year.

The attack reportedly back on Wednesday with two suicide car bombs and attacks on multiple positions. Syrian forces responds with fire from helicopters.

The number of casualties on both sides is unknown.

Activists are also claiming that Islamic State fighters attacked the headquarters of the ruling Baath party in the predominantly-Kurdish city of Hasakeh in northeastern Syria. Two explosions were heard near the building.

State news agency SANA, while headlining “Military Operations Target Terrorists in Several Areas“, has said nothing about the fighting with the Islamic State.

The Islamic State was involved last summer in insurgents attacks on the regime, notably the capture of Mennegh airbase near Aleppo and an offensive in Latakia Province in western Syria.

However, at the start of the year, the jihadists turned on the insurgency in battles across northern and eastern Syria. While being pushed out of the northwest, the Islamic State has taken almost all insurgent positions in the east, as well as holding Raqqa — the largest city outside regime control.

As the Islamic State weakened its main opponents, the Assad regime refrained from attacks on the jihadists, and ISIS carried out few if any operations against the Syrian military.

With the Islamic State now face-to-face with Syrian forces in much of Syria, the chances of confrontation have risen. Last week, the jihadists seized a gas field in central Syria, killing at least 72 guards. The Syrian military has counter-attacked, so far without apparent success.

1st Post-Resolution UN Aid Crosses Border Into Syria

A United Nations convoy of trucks carrying food, water purification tablets and other relief supplies crossed the Turkish border on Thursday into insurgent-held areas of Syria.

The delivery is the first since a Security Council resolution authorized cross-border operations, after months of resistance by the Assad regime and its ally Russia.

Earlier this month the Council finally adopted a resolution for the assistance. Russia agreed when clauses for enforcement — in the event that Damascus blocked the convoys — were dropped.

Nine trucks left the Bab al-Salam crossing in Turkey on Thursday morning, with the insurgent bloc Islamic Front manning the Syria side. United Nations monitors oversaw the shipment, to ensure that no military items were being smuggled.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council on Thursday that it was hard to reach 4.7 million people, almost half of the displaced in Syria, with aid.

The Syrian military has imposed sieges on many insurgent-held areas, hoping to break resistance and establish ceasefires.