Al-Bab News

A total of 66,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting along two fronts in Syria`s fractured north, the United Nation`s humanitarian coordination agency (OCHA) said Sunday. 

The Syrian army and its allies made a sudden advance on Saturday and Sunday into areas held by Islamic State in northwest Syria.

The blast devastated two adjacent rebel command posts and also seriously wounded a large number of fighters.

Turkey`s military said on Friday it was close to taking the northern Syrian city of al-Bab from Islamic State, a victory that would deepen Turkish influence in an area where it has created a de facto buffer zone.

The Turkish military said on Friday it was nearing the end of its operation to take control of the northern Syrian city of al-Bab from Islamic State and that the jihadists` resistance had largely been broken.

Al-Bab is IS`s final stronghold in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.

Syrian rebels supported by Turkish armed forces have seized control of strategically important hills around the Islamic State-controlled town of al-Bab, Turkey's military said on Wednesday.

The Islamic State group was "completely besieged" in Al-Bab after forces loyal to Syria's regime cut off a road into the jihadists' last major stronghold in Aleppo province, a monitor said Monday.

Syrian troops and allied militia on Sunday chipped away at territory held by Islamic State jihadists on several fronts across the country, state media and a monitoring group said.

An Islamic State leader was killed in a Turkish airstrike in Syria`s al-Bab as part of the ongoing Euphrates Shield operation, the media reported on Friday.

Clashes between Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and Islamic State militants intensified around the northern Syrian town of al-Bab on Wednesday, killing four Turkish soldiers and more than 40 jihadists, the army said.