Erdoğan says Turkish operation in Syria will continue to Raqqa

President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday that the final goal of a Turkish military operation in Syria was not just to retake the city of al-Bab from the terrorist Daesh organization, but to cleanse a border region including Raqqa of the terrorists.

"The ultimate goal is to cleanse a 5,000-square-km area," Erdoğan told a news conference before his departure on an official visit to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Turkey has long advocated a "safe zone" for civilians in northern Syria cleared of Daesh terrorists and the YPG terrorist organization, but says such an area would need to be policed by a no-fly zone.

Erdoğan said he had discussed this again with the United States and Russia and that Turkey was prepared to do the infrastructure work in the zone, to help prevent migration from Syria and allow those who had fled to Turkey to go home.