Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies have entered the centre of the ISIL bastion Al Bab, saying its capture was just a “matter of time”.
Erdogan talking to journalists on Sunday before leaving for a tour of Gulf countries said, “Al Bab is now besieged from all fronts … Our forces entered the centre” with Turkish-backed Syrian rebels.
He said it was “only a matter of time” before the allied forces took full control of the flashpoint town in northern Syria.
“Daesh forces have begun leaving Al Bab completely,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, also known as ISIS.
His comments came a day after Turkish forces and allied rebels entered Al Bab to drive ISIL fighters from it, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor tracking developments in Syria’s conflict.
