Erdogan: Turkish army close to taking IS-held town of Al-Bab

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish troops backed by Syrian rebel fighters have entered the centre of the Islamic State group bastion of Al-Bab and will soon capture it, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday, February 12, according to AFP.

The town in Syria's Aleppo province is the last stronghold of the jihadist group in the region, and has also been targeted by Syrian government forces.

The Syrian opposition, meanwhile, announced the formation of a delegation to attend a new round of UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva on February 20.

IS has come under pressure from simultaneous offensives in both Syria and Iraq, where the group seized large swathes of territory in 2014 and proclaimed an Islamic "caliphate".

Erdogan, speaking in Istanbul, said Al-Bab "is now besieged from all fronts".

"Our forces entered the centre," he added, saying it was "only a matter of time" before the alliance of Turkish forces and rebels took control of the town.

"Daesh forces have begun leaving Al-Bab completely," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Turkish forces and allied rebels entered Al-Bab for the first time on Saturday, from the west, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based monitor reported heavy clashes inside western Al-Bab on Sunday, as well as on the northern edge of the town, where Turkish forces and rebels were advancing but had not yet entered.

One Turkish soldier was killed and two soldiers wounded in clashes with IS, the Turkish Dogan news agency reported.

That raised to 67 the number of Turkish soldiers killed since Ankara began Operation Euphrates Shield in August, targeting both IS and the Kurdish YPG militia.