Turkish-backed rebel forces in northern Syria have gained control of three areas in the past 24 hours as part of a Turkish initiated operation to drive the Islamic State and Kurdish militia forces from the Syrian border with Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday the Turkish-backed forces would press on to the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab, around 15 km from their current location, a town located in the western part of Aleppo province. The Turkish advance has prompted a Syrian warning, in which it stressed that the presence of Turkish troops on Syrian soil was unacceptable and a “dangerous escalation and flagrant breach of Syria’s sovereignty.”