Turkish forces, allied militants enter Syria’s northern city of al-Bab

A Turkey-backed militant drives an ACV-15 armored personnel carrier (APC), near the town of Bizaah northeast of the city of al-Bab, some 30 kilometers from the Syrian city of Aleppo, on February 6, 2017. (Photos by AFP)

Turkish forces along with allied militants have entered the Daesh-held Syrian city of al-Bab, says a UK-based monitoring group.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Turkish troops entered the northern city’s western flank on Saturday where they took control of several suburbs after heavy clashes with the terrorists.

The monitoring group said the clashes coincided with "Turkish shelling and intensive airstrikes" which killed at least six civilians.

Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported that one Turkish troop was killed and another injured during the push to enter the city.     

The city is Daesh’s last remaining bastion in Syrian’s northern Aleppo province and has been under siege by Turkish forces from the west, east and north and government troops from the south.

In August last year, the Turkish air force and special ground forces launched Operation Euphrates Shield inside Syria in a declared bid to aid the so-called Free Syrian Army militants against Daesh terrorists – without the permission of the government in Damascus.  

Turkey-backed militants sit in an armored vehicle near the town of Bizaah northeast of the city of al-Bab, some 30 kilometers from the Syrian city of Aleppo, on February 4, 2017. 

Over the past almost six years, Syria has been fighting foreign-sponsored militancy. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated in August last year that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the Syria crisis until then. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in the war-torn country, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.