Turkish soldiers in key Syrian town Bab: Group

The Turkish army and its allies entered the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) bastion of al-Bab in northern Syria on Dec. 10, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

"They entered al-Bab from the northwest after violent clashes with the jihadists as Turkish artillery bombarded the town," the observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said, according to AFP.

Heavy fighting was ongoing late Dec. 10 in the town near the Turkish border, he said.

Al-Bab, which has been under ISIL control since 2014, is the last bastion the group has in northern Aleppo province.

In August, Turkish troops entered northern Syria in an operation dubbed Euphrates Shield, which Ankara says targets both ISIL and the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), both of which Turkey regards as terrorist organizations due to their links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkish forces first came close to al-Bab in November. 

State-run Anadolu Agency reported Dec. 9 that a total of 300 Turkish commandos would join Turkey's Euphrates Shield operation. 

The Turkish Armed Forces said Dec. 11 that a total of 12 ISIL militants had been killed on the 110th day of the operation, while 26 ISIL targets were also destroyed. 

While nine of the jihadists were killed in three regions near al-Bab in Turkish air strikes, three of them were killed in al-Bab with an armed drone, the military said. 

It added the Turkish army dropped leaflets over al-Bab, asking them to evacuate places where ISIL militants are found. 

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