The Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels have captured the western outskirts of the Daesh-held city of Al-Bab, a rebel official and war monitor said on Wednesday, escalating their assault as the Syrian army also advanced on the city. "With last night's assault, Daesh's defenses have been broken through and the advance is now continuing," said a Turkmen Syrian rebel official, speaking from the Turkish city of Gaziantep. Syrian government forces have advanced to within a few kilometers (miles) of Al-Bab, which is located 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Aleppo. The separate campaign by the Syrian army has raised the risk of a clash with the Turkish military. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that reports on the war, said the Turkish forces and their Free Syrian Army rebel allies had captured a hill on the western periphery of the city. "We don't know if Daesh will be able to recover it, or if it is in a state of collapse," Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said. The rebel official said Turkish reinforcements had been sent to the area a week ago. Meanwhile, the death toll in air strikes against Al-Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria in the northwest of the country has risen to 46, including 24 civilians, a monitor said on Wednesday. The dead included 10 children and 11 women, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the toll could rise further because of the number of wounded with serious injuries. The raids hit the headquarters of former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh Al-Sham in Idlib and several adjacent neighborhoods of the city at dawn on Tuesday. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said he could not determine whether the raids were carried out by Syrian government ally Russia or a US-led coalition battling militants. But Moscow quickly denied on Tuesday that its planes had struck the city. In recent weeks, Fateh Al-Sham has come under increasing in Idlib, the last province in Syria almost entirely in rebel hands. Bombing raids against the group have escalated, including one US strike on a training camp in January that killed more than 100 fighters. Rebel groups have held Idlib province since the spring of 2015, four years after the Syrian conflict broke out. More than 310,000 people have died since the war began and millions have been forced to flee their homes. — Agencies
