Turkish troops are in Al Bab - now for Raqqa, says Erdogan

ISTANBUL // Turkish president Recept Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies have entered the centre of ISIL stronghold, Al Bab, saying its capture was now a “matter of time”.-But the final goal in Syria was to cleanse the militants from the whole region, including the capital of ISIL’s so-called caliphate at Raqqa.

“Al-Bab is now besieged from all fronts ... Our forces entered the centre,” Mr Erdogan said before departing for a tour of Gulf countries. “Our final target is to clean the region from Daesh. Daesh’s main centre is not Al-Bab, but Raqqa. Once Raqqa is cleared, this region will be a terror-free area.”

Turkey believes recent ISIL attacks in Turkey, including the mass shooting in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Day, have been steered from Al Bab and Raqqa, and clearing the towns of extremists is a national security priority.

The fighting in Al Bab, 30 kilometres from the Turkish border, has proved to be the toughest faced by Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies since Turkey entered the Syrian war last August. Now that Turkish troops have entered the town, they risk coming into direct conflict with Syrian government forces who are closing in from the south.

Military sources reported one Turkish soldier killed and three wounded in clashes with extremists on Sunday. The latest death takes the number of Turkish casualties in Syria to 67.

The three wounded soldiers were evacuated from Al Bab and taken to hospitals in Turkey’s Kilis and Gaziantep provinces near the Syrian border.

Al Bab is the last ISIL stronghold in the northern province of Aleppo and is also being targeted by Syrian government forces.

. “The ultimate goal is to cleanse a 5,000-square-km area,” Erdogan said. His spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said last week that Turkey had presented a detailed plan to ISIL from Raqqa and discussions on strategy with the White House were under way.

However, on Sunday the Turkish leader made it clear that Turkey had no intention of staying on in Syria once the area had been cleared of both ISIL and the Kurdish YPG militia who are fighting alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces and are backed by Washington. But Turkey considers the YPG to be a hostile force and does not want them involved in any operation to take Raqqa.

Turkey has repeatedly called for a “safe zone” inside Syria supported by a no-fly zone, which it believes could help to alleviate the burden of accommodating Syrian refugees.

Some 2.7 million Syrian citizens have sought refuge in Turkey from the almost six-year civil war.

Meanwhile, Syria’s opposition on Sunday announced its 21-member delegation for a new round of UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva scheduled for February 20. The delegation includes ten rebel representatives.

It will be headed by Nasr Al Hariri, a member of the National Coalition, replacing Assad Al oabi, who led the opposition at several previous rounds of talks in Geneva last year.

The delegation’s chief negotiator was named as Mohamed Sabra, a lawyer who was part of the opposition’s technical team during negotiations in Geneva in 2014. He replaces Mohamad Alloush, a rebel from the powerful Army of Islam faction.

Mr Alloush served as negotiator during three rounds of peace talks in Geneva as well as the January negotiations in the Kazakh capital Astana, which were organised by Turkey and Russia.

Neither he nor the Army of Islam were listed as members of the delegation to Geneva, though it was unclear if the group was boycotting the talks or would be represented by other delegates.

No reason was given for the replacement of Mr Zoabi or Mr Alloush.

The delegation includes representatives from several rebel groups, including Faylaq Al-Sham, an Islamist faction active around Damascus, and Liwa Sultan Murad, a battalion close to Turkey.

The umbrella High Negotiations Committee (HNC) opposition group said the delegation to the talks would for the first time include representatives from two additional opposition groupings, known informally as the Moscow group and the Cairo group. The HNC has opposed their inclusion in the past, accusing them of being too flexible with regard to the Syrian government. Former minister Qadri Jamil of the Moscow group is close to the Russian leadership while the Cairo grouping includes former foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi.

But representatives from both groups denied they were included.

* Agence France Presse

* Reuters