IRAQI Shi’ite militia fighters pushed south along the Syrian border against Isis yesterday, causing the United States and Iraqi Kurds to voice alarm at the Iranian-backed force’s advance.

The Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) said they had surrounded the Isis-occupied border village of Jayar Ghalfas and were ready to storm it.

Further east, they liberated the village of al-Khibrah as part of their efforts to drive the terrorist death cult from the region.

PMU forces reached the border on Monday after a rapid advance from the area around Tal Afar, west of Mosul.

The next day, PMU spokesman Karim al-Nouri said the militia was ready to cross the border “to fight alongside the Syrian government in the war on Isis terrorists.”

On Wednesday, US General Stephen Townshend, commander of the Operation Inherent Resolve coalition against Isis, met Iraqi Kurdistan regional government President Masoud Barzani in Erbil.

Both reportedly “expressed concern” at the victories of the Iranian-supported PMU.

“It constitutes a threat to security and stability in the liberated areas of Nineveh province,” a statement from Mr Barzani’s office said.

On Monday, the leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which receives US aid, met in the northern city of Qamishli, vowing to “confront the Iranian project” of the PMU advance.

That came amid more signs that the US plans to take over the the oil-rich Syrian-Iraqi border region in its entirety.

Last Saturday, the New York Times reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi had handed a contract to run the the Freeway 1 motorway from Baghdad to the Jordanian capital Amman as a toll road to military services corporation Constellis.

Under the plan, which has attracted criticism from the Iraqi media, Constellis subsidiary Olive Group would manage the road and stablemate Academi would provide armed escorts for convoys travelling along it.

Academi is the latest rebranding of mercenary firm Blackwater, four of whose operatives were jailed in 2015 for the 2007 massacre of 14 Iraqis in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.

The motorway forks east of Jordan and continues to the Syrian capital Damascus through the at-Tanf border crossing.

The road dominates the deserts of western Anbar province on the Saudi Arabian border, and could serve as a route for arms and recruits for Riyadh-backed extremists.

At-Tanf is occupied by US, British and Norwegian special forces backing Free Syrian Army (FSA) guerillas in their bid to seize the eastern city of Deir Ezzor and prevent Syrian government forces capturing it from Isis.

On Wednesday, coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon confirmed reports that Syrian government troops and allied militia — including units of the PMU — had not retreated from the Damascus-Baghdad road.

That was despite propaganda leaflets dropped by US planes warning them to leave and rocket artillery barrages by the FSA — which were met with Russian air force raids.

Col Dillon claimed the Syrian forces — which US jets bombed earlier this month in support of the FSA — were a threat to the illegally occupying coalition troops.