Turkey aims to have fully secured its borders in the first half of next year, Defence Minister Fikri Isik said on Thursday, as Turkish-backed forces pursue a campaign to clear Islamic State and Kurdish fighters from a strip of northern Syria.

“It is expected that the full security of our borders will be established in the first half of 2017,” Isik said in a presentation to parliament.
He said the next stage of Turkey’s Syria offensive, dubbed “Euphrates Shield”, was to push further south and “cleanse” areas including the city of al-Bab from Islamic State.