Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said his troops and allied Free Syrian Army have reached the heart of the Islamic State stronghold of al-Bab in northern Syria and will eventually march on the extremists' de facto capital, Raqqa.
Erdoğan said IS fighters have begun deserting al-Bab, which has been under attack for weeks. But the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish troops have yet to enter the town's centre, with the fighting still concentrated on its outskirts.
The final goal of a Turkish military incursion into Syria was not just to retake the city of al-Bab from Islamic State, but to cleanse a border region including Raqqa of the jihadists, Erdoğan told the news conference before his departure on an official visit to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
"The goal is to establish a safe, terror-free zone of 4 to 5,000 kilometres, and to prevent migration from Syria, and ensure the return of [Syrian] people who live now in our camps.
"Of course, in order to do this, we also would like to almost build new cities there. I have shared this with Mr. Trump and coalition forces, including Germany in particular," he added.
