(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Ankara: Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today he hopes the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin would be liberated from militants "by this evening."
The route militants use to enter and exit eastern Afrin will be closed soon, Turkey President told a gathering of village and neighborhood heads at the presidential complex in the capital Ankara.
Erdogan reiterated that in the Turkish-led counter-terrorist operation, the utmost care is being taken to avoid harming civilians, and that if they had not done so, the operation would have been over by now.
"All kinds of care is being taken. Look, right now, first civilians are being taken out of Afrin in vehicles through a special corridor," Erdogan said.
"We will clear Afrin of militants, clear Manbij, and east of the Euphrates River to our border with northern Iraq, we will rid the militants from all of them the same way."
Erdogan also said that the militants lack the ability to construct the tunnels in the mountains that they use, Anadolu Agency reported.
"Today, as the operation entered its 54th day, almost 3,500 militant have been neutralized and about 1,300 square kilometers of land cleared of militants," the president added.
On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to clear YPG/PKK and ISIS militants from the region of Afrin, near Turkey's southern border.
The military also said only terror targets are being destroyed and that "utmost care" is being taken to avoid harming civilians.
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