Continued heavy fighting in the Syrian city of al-Bab, just east of Aleppo, has continued to take its toll on the civilian population, with the Turkish Army reporting that 30 civilians were killed by ISIS’ “homemade bombs” while they were trying to flee the ISIS-held city.
This adds to an already large civilian toll in the fighting, with Turkish airstrikes having killed at least 88 civilians over the course of late Thursday and early Friday. Turkey has also claimed to have killed 226 ISIS fighters over the last week and a half.
Al-Bab is the last major city ISIS holds west of the Euphrates River, though it still holds a large amount of territory further east. Turkey has indicated that once al-Bab falls, they will attack Manbij, a former ISIS city which is currently controlled by the Kurdish YPG.
Turkey reported 16 of their soldiers were killed Wednesday, and 36 have died overall in the invasion of Syria. The large single day death toll fueled growing questions in Turkey about the wisdom of launching an open-ended invasion of northern Syria targeting seemingly everyone.