US-coalition jets 'kill 47 ISIL fighters'

Military says a total of 47 fighters killed in northern Syria in clashes and air raids in the past 24 hours.

Turkish and US-led coalition fighter jets have carried out
bombing raids against ISIL positions near Syria's al-Bab, a
town held by ISIL and besieged by Turkey-backed Syrian
rebels for almost two months, according to a Turkish military
statement.

A total of 47 ISIL (also known as ISIS) fighters were
"neutralised" in clashes and air raids in the past 24 hours, 
the statement said, adding that buildings, defence posts, shelters and an ammunition depot were destroyed in raids.

The Turkish army also hit 135 Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant targets in northern Syria, the General Staff said in a
statement.

Turkish jets destroyed 64 targets, including 45 buildings, 
three bomb-laden vehicles and five headquarters used by
 the armed groups in the region around Al-Bab, according 
to the statement.

There was no immediate response from ISIL.

Turkey first sent tanks across the border on August 24 
as part of the operation Euphrates Shield . Four days later, 
the Turkish army suffered its first fatality in northern Syria, in a
rocket attack blamed on Kurdish militias.

The city is in a strategic area, close to the Turkish border
 in northern Syria en route to Raqqa and Idlib. Al-Bab is one
 of the few remaining strongholds of ISIL.

If it takes Al-Bab, the Turkish military says its next objective
 is to clear the whole area and retake the town of Manbij 
from  the SDF, a largely Kurdish militia.

Over 215 residential areas, including Jarablus city in northern
Syria , have been cleared of ISIL as part of the Euphrates

Shield operation so far, according to the Turkish military.