KURDISH militia forces continued their advance against Turkish-backed Islamist rebels in Syria yesterday in defiance of threats from Ankara.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed that the strategic border town of Azaz would not fall to the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

He threatened the “harshest reaction” if the Kurdish force did capture the town, while claiming that his army’s artillery shelling of YPG-held areas in northern Aleppo province had driven it back.