By Levent Tok
Al-BAB, Syria
Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) has managed to capture 40 percent of the center of the Daesh-held Al-Bab town in northern Syria.
Turkish forces and FSA fighters have seized several sites in Zamzam neighborhood in the town’s south-western part, according to Anadolu Agency correspondents in the area.
Several positions were also captured by FSA fighters in south of the town, the correspondents said.
According to the correspondents, FSA fighters are now at a junction leading to Tadaf town, located southeast of Al-Bab city in the northeastern suburbs of Aleppo.
In August, the Turkish army launched a major offensive code-named Operation Euphrates Shield to improve security, support coalition forces, and eliminate the terror threat along the Turkish border.
The operation has focused on the Daesh-held town of Al-Bab since early December.
The town is now under a siege imposed by Turkey-backed FSA fighters in an attempt to break resistance by Daesh terrorists and avoid civilian losses.
If they want to flee the town, Daesh militants have no other way but to cross a narrow passage in eastern Aleppo’s countryside to Raqqa city in northern Syria.
Last month, regime forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, began to advance into Al-Bab from the south. But as the FSA fighters now control the junction leading to Tadaf, their advance into the town has stopped.
Regime forces reportedly control the southern areas in Tadaf but have not yet fully controlled the town’s center though the Russian defense ministry claims that the town has been fully taken by regime forces.
