The route terrorists use to enter and exit eastern Afrin will be closed soon, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a gathering of village and neighborhood heads at the presidential complex in the capital Ankara on Wednesday.

Erdogan reiterated that in the Turkish-led counter-terrorist operation, the utmost care is being taken to avoid harming civilians, and that if they had not taken this care, the operation would have been over by now.

“All kinds of care are being taken. Look, right now, first civilians are being taken out of Afrin in vehicles through a special corridor,” Erdogan said.

“We will clear Afrin of terrorists, clear Manbij, and east of the Euphrates River to our border with northern Iraq, we will rid the terrorists from all of them the same way.”

Erdogan also said that the terrorists lack the ability to construct the tunnels in the mountains that they use.

“They have partners, too. They did this all together as coalition powers. The terrorists aren’t that smart, don’t be fooled,” he added.