TURKEY demanded yesterday that Iraqi troops halt operations to close the Isis escape route from the besieged city of Mosul.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin called on Turkey’s Nato ally the United States to force the Iraqi army to withdraw troops from the outskirts of Tal Afar, west of Mosul.

The US-backed plan for liberating Mosul left the western approaches to the city open, allowing the Isis death cult to escape into Syria to fight the government, which Washington wants to see overthrown.