Turkey says almost taken Syria’s Al-bab

SYRIA, OPPOSITION BLAST ANKARA OVER CIVILIAN DEATHS

THE SYRIAN government and an opposition monitoring group condemned Friday what they call Turkey’s “crimes” against the Syrian people in the northern town of Al-bab that is controlled by the Islamic State group, as a top Turkish military official said most of the town is under control of allied opposition fighters.

Turkish troops and allied opposition fighters have been on the offensive in Al-bab for weeks to recapture it from IS, a battle that has killed hundreds of civilians so far. On February 7, the Turkish offensive on the town intensified in an attempt to capture it from the extremists but the push has been slow because of fierce resistance from IS fighters.

The battle has been difficult for Turkish troops who have lost some 65 soldiers since they entered Syria in August, most of them in Al-bab.

Turkish forces have been deployed in Syria since August with the aim of clearing a border patch of IS militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters that Ankara considers related to its own Kurdish insurgency.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish shelling and airstrikes have killed 45 people in Al-bab since Wednesday.

“The crimes committed against civilians in the city of Albab are continuing after the killers of civilians have permitted shedding the blood of Syrians,” the Observatory said.