(reuters_tickers)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday the final goal of a Turkish incursion into Syria was not just to retake the city of al-Bab from Islamic State, but to cleanse a border region including Raqqa of the jihadists.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are pressing a major offensive on al-Bab, 30 km (20 miles) south of the Turkish border. The advance risks putting them in direct conflict with Syrian government forces who are closing in on the city from the south.
“The ultimate goal is to cleanse a 5,000-square-km area,” Erdogan told a news conference before his departure on an official visit to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
He said Turkish forces had no intention of staying in Syria once the area had been cleared of both Islamic State and Kurdish YPG militia fighters, whom Turkey sees as a hostile force.
MORE: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/erdogan-says-end-goal-of-turkish-operation-in-syria-is-raqqa/42954712
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul and Ellen Francis in Beirut; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Reuters
Categories: Syria, The Muslim Times, Turkey, Turks
interesting … Turkish forces clear Raqqa. And then what? They do not like Assad and do not like the Kurds. To whom do they want to hand over Raqqa? May be a new City State? like in the Middle Ages of Europe?