Turkey aims to ‘cleanse’ border area
THE final goal of Turkey’s incursion into Syria was not just to retake the city of al-Bab from Islamic State (IS), but to cleanse a border region, including Raqqa, of the jihadists, President Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are pressing a major offensive on al-Bab, 30km south of the Turkish border.
The advance risks putting them in direct conflict with Syrian government forces who are closing in on the city from the south.
“The ultimate goal is to cleanse a 5 000km² area,” Erdogan said before his departure on an official visit to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
He said Turkish forces had no intention of staying in Syria once the area had been cleared of both IS and Kurdish YPG militia fighters, whom Turkey sees as a hostile force.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said rebels backed by heavy Turkish air strikes fought IS north and southwest of al-Bab yesterday.
Turkish forces have advanced into the city from the west in recent days, and now control around 10% of the city and all of its western suburbs, the Observatory said.
Syrian government forces and allied militia have also made gains south of al-Bab, near the town of Tadef, since Friday, reaching an area 1.5km from the city, it said.
Turkey believes recent IS attacks in Turkey have been steered from al-Bab and Raqqa, and it regards a clear-out of the towns as a national security priority.