THU 28 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Nov 14, 2016
Source: The Daily Star
Turkey-backed Syria rebels near Daesh bastion of Al-Bab
BEIRUT: Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces are 2 kilometers from the Daesh (ISIS) stronghold of Al-Bab as they press Ankara’s Operation Euphrates Shield, an activist group said Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish forces were targeting the town with artillery fire and airstrikes but it had no immediate word on casualties.

Al-Bab, 30 kilometers from the Turkish border, has been a key target for Ankara and its Syrian rebel allies since its campaign began on Aug. 24.

“Opposition factions backed by Turkish troops are 2 kilometers north and northwest of the town of Al-Bab,” said Rami Abdel-Rahman, director of the Observatory.

“This progress is a continuation of the campaign that began with the capture of Jarablus and has seen the jihadis expelled from an area of 2,500 square kilometers along the border with Turkey,” he said.

Ankara launched its unprecedented cross-border operation saying it was targeting both Daesh but also the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which has been a key opponent of the militant group.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Ankara wants to capture Al-Bab from Daesh and then push Kurdish-led forces from the nearby town of Manbij.

Abdel-Rahman said Daesh forces in Al-Bab were almost surrounded.

“The only route left open is the road to Raqqa that runs southeast from Al-Bab through the [militant-held] town of Deir Hafer,” he said.

“The rebel forces are advancing because of the support from the Turkish forces and [Daesh] has withdrawn from several areas without putting up a fight,” he added.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, 12 Syrians, including seven children, were killed Sunday as pro-government forces kept up their campaign against opposition areas in the area, while rebels shelled a government-held district in Aleppo city.

The violence Sunday comes a day after regime troops repelled a rebel offensive on western parts of Aleppo launched late October. State news agency SANA said the shelling of a western Aleppo district killed four, including two women and a child.

Residents of eastern Aleppo said for days they got text messages urging them to leave in the next 24 hours. It was not possible to immediately verify the authenticity of the messages or who sent them. Government aircraft had previously dropped fliers on the eastern districts also urging residents to leave and make use of the Russian-declared passageways to evacuate the besieged district.

Three residents said they received the messages Friday and Sunday throughout the day, denouncing the opposition and threatening residents with an attack.

While airstrikes on eastern Aleppo city have subsided, aerial bombings of rebel-held western parts of Aleppo province continued. The Syrian Civil Defense, which operates in opposition-held areas, said one of its centers was bombed in rural Aleppo and put out of service in airstrikes on Atareb town. The strikes also killed three people, including two children.

Meanwhile, a suspected airstrike is believed to have struck at a border crossing in Kurdish-held Afrin canton, which links the area to rebel-held parts of Aleppo province, the Kurdish security force, known as the Asayish, said Sunday. The Asayish statement, carried by the Kurdish news agency Hawar, said the bombing occurred early Sunday on a crossing used by as many as 5,000 people moving from western rural Aleppo to its north and east, mostly opposition areas. The Observatory put the death toll from the explosion there at 12. It didn’t say whether it was an airstrike or an explosion.

In the complex terrain of northern Syria, it was not immediately clear who was behind the bombing.

In rebel-held northern Idlib province, the Observatory and Aleppo Today media group said airstrikes killed an entire family of a mother and her four children.

Near the capital Damascus, in the western Ghouta region, opposition activists said airstrikes in Khan al-Shih hit a mosque around dawn Sunday, killing at least two people, including the mosque’s preacher. The local Khan al-Shih media center and the Syrian Civil Defense in rural Damascus reported the airstrikes. The Observatory also reported the strike on the mosque, and the subsequent two deaths. It was not immediately possible to verify if the airstrikes were from Russian or government aircraft. The Khan al-Shih media center showed footage of extensive damage to the mosque.

The town of Khan al-Shih has been scene to intensive fighting and airstrikes for weeks amid a tightening government siege. There have been reports of local dignitaries negotiating with the government to end the bombing campaign in exchange for evacuating the rebels.

The government state news agency reported Syrian troops have advanced and tightened their siege on the town, which lies about 25 kilometers south of Damascus and along the highway that links the capital to the southern region of Qunaitra. Other rebel-held suburbs of Damascus were recaptured by the government after a tightening siege and heavy bombings.



 
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