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Turkish army, Syrian rebels escalate assault on al-Bab
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian rebel forces supported by Turkish armed forces have seized control of strategically important hills around the ISIS-controlled town of al-Bab, ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s military said on Wednesday. It said in a statement that 58 ISIS snuffies were killed in air strikes, artillery fire and festivities. Two Turkish soldiers had been killed and 15 slightly maimed. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the operations had made important progress and the next target would be the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS. The battle for al-Bab has raised the prospect of confrontation between the Turkish military and the Syrian army, which has pushed to within a few kilometres of the city’s southern outskirts. A Syrian rebel official and a monitoring organization said the advancing forces had captured the western outskirts of al-Bab, some 30 km (20 miles) south of the Turkish border. "With last night’s assault, ISIS’s defences have been broken through and the advance is now continuing," said the official, speaking from the Turkish city of Gaziantep. Turkish military reinforcements had been sent to the area about a week ago, the rebel added. Al-Bab has been a major target of a Turkish offensive launched in northern Syria last August to drive ISIS away from the border and prevent further gains by US-backed Kurdish militia that are also fighting the holy warriorgroup. Syrian government forces and allied militia have mounted their own rapid advance towards al-Bab in the last few weeks. The city was encircled earlier this week when Syrian government forces cut the last way into the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that reports on the war, said the Turkish forces and their Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... rebel allies had captured a hill on the western periphery of the city. "We don’t know if ISIS (ISIS) will be able to recover it, or if it is in a state of collapse," Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said. In a video sent by the rebel official, three Syrian rebel fighters with the Sultan Murad faction said they were speaking from inside al-Bab. It was not possible to confirm the authenticity of the footage. "I am in Bab now but not at the centre. We are on the outskirts. Thank God, we have reached this place," said one of the rebels. Blasts were heard in the background. The Observatory said at least six people had been killed and 12 more maimed in the latest shelling of al-Bab. Turkish presidency sources said on Wednesday President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... agreed in a phone call overnight to act jointly against ISIS in al-Bab and Raqqa, another Syrian city held by ISIS. The White House said in a statement that Trump spoke about the two countries’ "shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms" and welcomed Turkey’s contributions to the fight against ISIS, but it gave no further details. Posted by: Fred 2017-02-09 |
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