Taking the city of Aleppo from rebel forces will be a springboard for Syria's army to push the "terrorists" back to Turkey, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a Russian newspaper on Friday.
"You have to keep cleaning this area and to push the terrorists to Turkey to go back to where they come from, or to kill them. There's no other option," Assad said in an interview with Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.
"Aleppo is going to be a very important springboard to do this move."
Assad also said Turkey's actions in Syria constituted an invasion which was against international law and the country's civil war was now a conflict between Russia and the West.