© AFP 2016/ GEORGE OURFALIAN
The efforts to liberate the strategic city are complicated by the terrorists using civilians as a human shield.
"Both sides are suffering losses, but Daesh is being hit the hardest. Turkish artillery and the FSA keep pounding their positions in the north of the city, even though in the past couple of days heavy rain and fog have prevented the Turkish Air Force from hitting the jihadists' positions," Taha Atraç told Sputnik Turkey.
He said the city was full of civilians who are prevented from moving out by Daesh fighters who are use these people as a human shield.
"That's why we have to be very careful and make sure civilians are not hurt. Without all these civilians in the town we would have seized the city a long time ago. We still hope that within the next few days al-Bab will be liberated though," Taha Atraç said.
He added that there were some 1,500 Free Syrian Army fighters taking part in the operation.
"We have reinforcements coming in each time we need them as part of this operation we are carrying out jointly with Turkish Special Ops units," he added.
According to a Free Syrian Army representative, while Turkish and FSA forces are advancing on al-Bab from the north, east and west, the southern approaches to the city will also be closed off to prevent reinforcements the besieged terrorists are getting from their brethren in Raqqa.
Russian Fighter Jets Continue to Bomb ISIL Centers in Al-Bab
The Turkish Armed Forces announced on Friday that the Russian warplanes have carried out three airstrikes on ISIL positions in the town of al-Bab in Northern Aleppo.
The Turkish Armed Forces confirmed in a statement that at least 12 ISIL members were killed in Russian air raids South of al-Bab.
The Turkish military also said one of its soldiers was killed and five others were wounded in an ISIL attack to the South of al Azrak.
Also, Turkish warplanes carried out several airstrikes on ISIL's defense lines in al-Bab and Daglabash, destroying 17 targets and killing 26 militants, the statement said.
On Monday, the Russian Air Force started targeting ISIL's positions in the town of al-Bab to back up the Turkish Army and its militant allies for the first time since the start of the Euphrates Shield Operation in Northern Syria.
Massdar news quoted a military source in Kuweires airbase as saying that the Russian fighter jets of Su24 and Su34 bombed ISIL's positions in al-Bab Northeast of Aleppo for the first time following improvement of relations between Ankara and Moscow.
Al-Bab is one of Daesh's last remaining strongholds near the Turkish border.
Capturing the city is of strategic importance to Turkey in order to prevent the Syrian Kurds taking it and unifying their own territories.
It should however be taken with a grain of salt. It is a Free Syrian Army commander who is asserting that Al-Bab will be liberated in days and FSA are just rebels tied to and supported by Turkey. It is thus not a Syrian Arab Army(SAA) commander representing the Syrian Arab Army who is making the call. The civilian populations in a number of northern towns in Syria have protested against the FSA and forced them to leave the towns. This is not the case with the SAA. Big difference.