President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that the final goal of a Turkish military incursion into Syria was not just to retake the city of Al-Bab from Daesh, but to cleanse a border region including Raqqa of the militants. «The ultimate goal is to cleanse a 5,000-square-km area,» Erdogan told a news conference before his departure on an official visit to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Turkey has long advocated a «safe zone» for civilians in northern Syria cleared of Daesh (the so-called IS) militants and the Kurdish YPG militia, but says such an area would need to be policed by a no-fly zone. Erdogan said he had discussed this again with the United States and Russia and that Turkey was prepared to do the infrastructure work in the zone, to help prevent migration from Syria and allow those who had fled to Turkey to go home. Hey said Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies have entered the center of the Daesh-held bastion Al-Bab, saying its capture was just a «matter of time». «Al Bab is now besieged from all fronts ... Our forces entered the center» with Syrian rebels, Erdogan told journalists in Istanbul, adding it was «only a matter of time» before the allied forces took full control of the flashpoint town. Turkish troops and Syrian rebels on Saturday entered the strategic northern Syrian town of Al-Bab. Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency quoted military sources as saying one Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in clashes with IS group militants 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, while also keeping Kurdish forces at bay. 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. Al-Bab is the militant group's last stronghold in the northern province of Aleppo and is also being targeted by regime forces. Turkey›s Dogan news agency says 66 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the campaign since it started, mostly in IS group attacks. And on Thursday, three Turkish soldiers were killed when a Russian air strike accidentally hit their position in a strike targeting IS group fighters in Al-Bab. Moscow said the incident was an accident and is under investigation. — Agencies
