Turkish troops, Syria rebels enter IS-held town

Al-Bab is jihadists’ last remaining Aleppo turf

BEIRUT: Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies entered the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria on Saturday, as government forces moved closer to the jihadist bastion, a monitor said.

Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency quoted military sources as saying one Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in clashes with the IS in al-Bab.

Turkish forces and allied insurgents have for weeks pressed an operation codenamed Euphrates Shield to drive the jihadists from the flashpoint town.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish forces and allied militias entered al-Bab from the west and then took full control of its western suburbs after fierce clashes with the jihadists.

The fighting coincided with “Turkish shelling and intensive air strikes” on al-Bab, the Britain-based monitor said.

It said at least six civilians were killed by Turkish artillery fire and air strikes.

Al-Bab is the jihadist group’s last stronghold in the northern province of Aleppo and is also being targeted by regime forces.

While Turkish-led forces have been advancing from the north, east and west, Syrian government troops are attacking from the south.

On Monday, Syrian troops severed a road leading into the town from the south and by Friday they were just 1.5km from the southern outskirts of al-Bab.

Turkey began an unprecedented campaign inside Syria in August, targeting both the IS and Kurdish militia.

After initial rapid progress, the campaign has been mired since December in the deadly fight for al-Bab.

Turkey’s Dogan news agency says 66 Turkish soldiers have been killed in

the campaign since it started, mostly in IS attacks.

And on Thursday, three Turkish soldiers were killed when a Russian air strike accidentally hit their position in an attack targeting the IS in al-Bab. Moscow said it was an accident and is being investigated.

Despite backing opposite sides in Syria’s conflict — Moscow is a government ally while Turkey supports the opposition — the two countries have worked closely in recent months.

They helped broker a nationwide ceasefire in place since Dec 30, and sponsored a round of peace talks last month in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

Al-Bab has been under IS control since 2014. In recent months, the jihadists have been rolled back in large parts of northern Syria, both by the Turkish campaign but also by a Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The SDF fights with air support from the US-led coalition battling the IS in Syria and Iraq, but Turkey regards the Kurdish component of the SDF as “terrorists”.

The alliance is pushing towards the IS’s “capital”, Raqqa in Syria, in an operation dubbed “Wrath of the Euphrates”.

The advance has progressed slowly, in part, SDF officials say, because the IS has heavily mined territory around Raqqa.

The Observatory said on Saturday that SDF fighters had now advanced to around 8km from the eastern outskirts of Raqqa, though their forces are further from the north of the city.

Turkey has suggested that it could turn its sights to Raqqa after the al-Bab operation is complete.

Syria’s conflict has killed more than 310,000 people since it began with antigovernment protests in March 2011.

Successive rounds of peace talks, including discussions organised by Russia and Turkey in Kazakhstan last month, have failed to advance a political solution to the conflict.

A new round of United Nations-sponsored talks is scheduled to take place in Geneva on Feb 20, but invitations have yet to be sent out.

The High Negotiations Committee, which is set to represent Syria’s opposition at the Geneva talks, meanwhile appointed its delegation to the negotiations after two days of discussion in Riyadh.

A statement said the 21-member delegation would be headed by Nasr al-Hariri and would also be supported by 20 advisers.

On Saturday, Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said Syrian government officials and rebels were being invited to new talks next week in Astana.

“It is planned to hold the latest highlevel meeting within the Astana process on resolving the situation in Syria on Feb 15 and Feb 16,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura and US observers would also be invited to the talks.