GAZIANTEP, Turkey — On April 26, the Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper reported that the Turkish army was mobilizing its ground forces to carry out a large-scale military operation to eliminate Islamic State militants from a northern Syrian area 18 kilometers (11 miles) deep and 8 kilometers (5 miles) wide.
According to the newspaper, the Turkish army deployed almost half of its ground forces, led by a squad of elite forces, to create a safe zone along the Turkish-Syrian border 110 kilometers (68 miles) long and 45 kilometers (28 miles) deep. This safe area will allow the refugees to cross back into their country from Turkey, where their numbers exceed 2.7 million.
