ISTANBUL, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – Turkey on Thursday vowed
to press on with the fight against “terror”, a day after 14 Turkish soldiers were killed by militant in an intensifying battle for a flashpoint Syrian town, Ankara’s biggest loss of its Syria campaign so far.
The soldiers were killed in a succession of attacks by Islamic State
(IS) militants around the town of Al-Bab on Wednesday that included three suicide car bombings.
The heavy toll showed the intensifying battle for Al Bab, which
Turkish forces have been seeking to capture for weeks in the biggest test of their four-month incursion into Syria.
Turkish troops entered Syria on August 24 in support of pro-Ankara
Syrian rebels, with the aim of ousting IS jihadists as well as Kurdish militia from the border area.
The campaign — dubbed Euphrates Shield — was launched as Turkey has
been hit by the bloodiest attacks in its modern history, blamed on jihadists and Kurdish militants.
“Turkey is in the midst of a great struggle — our fight against
terror continues both in our country and outside our borders,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Thursday.