High ranking Turkish official said on Wednesday his country will press its military offensive in Syria until the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist group is driven from the town of al-Bab, despite a warning from forces allied to Syrian national military and a helicopter attack on the armed groups it backs.

Turkey’s incursion into Syria, launched two months ago to allegedly drive ISIL from its border and prevent Kurdish militia fighters gaining ground in their wake, has been faced by confrontation with both Kurdish and Syria’s allied forces, whose frontlines lie close by.

The field commander of the forces allied to the Syrian army warned Turkey that any advance towards their positions north and east of Aleppo would be met “decisively and with force”.

The warnings came a day after what the Turkish military said was a barrel bomb attack on the armed groups it backs by a Syrian helicopter.

“This kind of attack will not stop our fight against Daesh (ISIL),” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in the capital Ankara.

“This operation will continue until al-Bab. The operation needs to continue, and it will,” he said.

The Syrian military said last week that the presence of Turkish troops on Syrian soil was a “dangerous escalation and flagrant breach of Syria’s sovereignty”. It warned it would bring down any Turkish warplanes entering Syrian air space.

Turkey launched “Operation Euphrates Shield” two months ago, sending tanks and warplanes into Syria in support of the outlawed gunmen. President Tayyip Erdogan has also said the operation will continue to al-Bab, which the Kurdish YPG militia is also seeking to control.

Source: Agencies