Turkey says only 100 extremists in Al Bab
ISTANBUL // Fewer than 100 ISIL fighters are still in the flashpoint Syrian town of Al Bab, Turkey said yesterday.
And Russia yesterday asked the Syrian regime to halt bombings during peace talks that begin in Geneva today, as UN envoy Staffan de Mistura played down expectations of a political breakthrough.
Turkish defence minister Fikri Isik said half of Al Bab was in the hands of Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels, after the bloodiest clashes of Ankara’s half-year campaign inside the war-torn country.
“We estimate there are less than 100” ISIL fighters left in Al Bab, Mr Isik said. “But they are very dangerous people.
“Some are snipers, some are potential suicide bombers.”
Turkey has been focusing on Al Bab as the last bastion of ISIL in Aleppo province.
But the battle for the town has been fierce, with most of the 69 Turkish soldiers killed in the Syria campaign dying there.
“More than half of the town is now in our hands,” Mr Isik said, indicating that the operation to surround Al Bab was over, with troops moving from district to district to clean up the town.
“Until this clean-up inside is completed it’s impossible to say that our work is over.”
But the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that Turkish troops and allied rebels controlled only 25 per cent of Al Bab, with about 700 extremists still fighting.
The Observatory also accused Turkish forces of killing more than 124 civilians in two weeks of air raids and shelling.
Ankara has denied claims that innocent lives have been lost, insisting it does its best to avoid civilian casualties. The resident and regional United Nations humanitarian coordinators for Syria said the UN was “deeply concerned” about the fate of 5,000 civilians trapped in and around Al Bab as fighting continued.
Yesterday, Mr de Mistura said that Russia announced it had “formally asked the Syrian government to silence their own skies during the talks”.
But hours after rival delegations arrived for the resumption of the UN-brokered negotiations, there seemed to be limited ground for progress on making peace. “Am I expecting a breakthrough? No, I am not expecting a breakthrough,” Mr de Mistura said, noting that momentum toward further talks was probably the best that could be hoped for.