SYRIAN peace talks were postponed yesterday amid alleged Turkish obstruction of the de-escalation zone plan.

Russia’s Middle East envoy Mikhail Bogdanov said the talks in the Kazakh capital Astana had been pushed back from June 12 to June 20.

Earlier this week, a source close to the Astana process told the Syrian official news agency Sana that Turkey was using pretexts to hinder implementation of the zones it has agreed to monitor with Russia and Iran.

Meanwhile, United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura met Rusisan Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow at what he called a “delicate, important moment” in the peace process.

“Without a good de-escalation process, Geneva talks will be difficult, but without the Geneva progress, there will be no horizon.”

That came as Kurdish YPG forces said Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) insurgents had attacked their north Aleppo province enclaves of Afrin and Manbij.

The Syrian Kurdish Hawar News Agency reported that 17 “Turkish occupation army mercenaries” had been killed in the battles on Wednesday night without making headway.

Turkish air raids on the YPG in north-east Syria and the allied PKK in Iraq in April led to a brief suspension of the offensive against the Isis stronghold of Raqqa by the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces.

But the US is also using its FSA allies in the country’s south to hinder Syrian army efforts to capture the eastern province of Deir Ezzor from Isis.

US warplanes bombed Syrian troops advancing against the militants on Tuesday.

And late yesterday CNN quoted US defence officials who said coalition aircraft had bombed two of three Syrian army off-road vehicles they claimed were approaching the at-Tanf border crossing with Iraq.