Claims that Turkey will hand over the Syrian town of al-Bab to President Bashar al-Assad's forces after driving out Islamic State are not true, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told the state-run Anadolu agency on Tuesday, January 24.

Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes, have been besieging al-Bab since December.

Kurtulmus said the U.S.-led coalition had failed to give sufficient support to Turkey's operation to seize the town, Reuters reports.