Turkey says ‘100 ISIL fighters’ left in Syria’s Al Bab

Turkey's defence minister Fikri Isik, left, meeting the United Kingdom's defence minister Michael Fallon during a Nato defence ministers in Brussels on February 15, 2017. Mr Isik said on February 22, Show more

ISTANBUL // There are less than 100 ISIL extremists still holed up in the flashpoint Syrian town of Al Bab, Turkey said on Wednesday of the bloodiest clashes of Ankara’s half-year campaign inside the war-torn country.

It comes as Russia asked the Syrian regime to halt bombings during peace talks which begin in Geneva on Thursday, even as the United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura played down expectations of a political breakthrough.

Turkish defence minister Fikri Isik said half the town of Al Bab was in the hands of Turkish troops and allied pro-Ankara Syrian rebels, after the government repeatedly said it was “largely under control”.

“We estimate there are less than 100” ISIL fighters left in Al Bab, Mr Isik told NTV television. “But they are very dangerous people. Some are snipers, some are potential suicide bombers.”

Since launching its unprecedented incursion into Syria in August, Turkey has been focusing on Al Bab as the last bastion of ISIL extremists in Aleppo province.

But the battle for the town has been fierce, with most of the 69 Turkish soldiers killed in the Syria campaign dying there.

“More than half of the town is now in our hands,” he said, indicating that the operation to surround Al Bab was “over” with troops now moving from district-to-district to “clean up” the town.

“Until this clean-up inside is completed, it’s impossible to say that our work is over,” he added.

But the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that Turkish troops and allied rebels controlled only 25 per cent of Al Bab, with some 700 extremists still fighting there.

The Britain-based Observatory has also accused Turkish forces of killing more than 124 civilians in two weeks of air strikes and shelling.

Ankara has denied claims that innocent lives have been lost, insisting it does its best to avoid civilian casualties.

The resident and regional UN humanitarian coordinators for Syria said the United Nations was “deeply concerned” over the fate of some 5,000 civilians trapped in and around Al Bab as the fighting continues.

On Wednesday – the eve of a new round of talks in Geneva between negotiators from Syria’s regime and the opposition after a 10-month hiatus – Mr de Mistura said that Russia announced it had “formally asked the Syrian government to silence their own skies during the talks”.

But just hours after rival delegations arrived for the resumption of the UN-brokered negotiations, there seemed limited ground for progress on making peace.

“Am I expecting a breakthrough? No, I am not expecting a breakthrough,” Mr de Mistura said, noting that momentum toward further talks was likely the best that can be hoped for.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press