KURDISH militia liberated the northern Syrian town of Manbij from Islamic State (Isis) over the weekend, ending a bloody two-month siege.

Isis also came under pressure in neighbouring Iraq yesterday, where Kurdish Peshmerga forces liberated five villages east of the extremists’ “capital” Mosul in preparation for army operations to free the city.

In Manbij, women cast off their veils and men shaved their beards in celebration after the US-backed YPG took the last Isis-held districts late on Friday.

The advance threatens the key border town of Jarabulus to the north, Isis’s main smuggling route from Turkey since the YPG took Tal Abyad to the west in July 2015.

Chasing Isis from northern Aleppo province could also free up Syrian army troops for the fierce battle for the provincial capital, Syria’s second city, where fighting between the army and the al-Qaida-affiliated Levant Conquest Front (LCF) escalated yesterday.

Reports yesterday afternoon indicated the LCF and its allies were shelling and assaulting the north-western al-Zahraa district of the city.

The Syrian army destroyed a vehicle bomb deployed by the Western-backed Ahrar as-Sham, but at least one other detonated in the built-up area.

It was unclear whether the clashes were an attempt to open a new front or merely intended to divert troops from the main battle around Ramouseh to the south.

There the army and its regional allies advanced slowly through the half-built 1070 housing project in their bid to close the breach by LCF forces a week ago. Jets pounded the battlefield and insurgent supply lines from Turkey in LCF-occupied Idlib province to the west.

On Saturday night nine civilians, including a child, were killed by insurgent shelling in government-held west Aleppo. More than 100 have been killed and 700 injured in the past fortnight.

Elsewhere yesterday Russian bombers blitzed Isis positions around besieged Deir Ezzor.In central Hama province Ahrar as-Sham heavily damaged the al-Zaara power station with rocket artillery.

The group still occupies the nearby village, where it massacred residents in May. Despite this atrocity, the US State Department has refused to withdraw its support.