FOUR hundred more troops are headed for Syria to help capture the Isis stronghold of Raqqa, the US military confirmed yesterday.

US Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve bombing coalition, confirmed leaks from anonymous officials to the Washington Post on Wednesday.

Col Dorrian said the new force would be made up of US marines and Army Rangers — and claimed its deployment would only be “temporary,” according to the Reuters news agency.

They will join a US special forces contingent embedded with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia alliance whose strength was increased from 300 to 500 in December by the outgoing Obama administration.

The SDF — dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia which Nato member Turkey has sworn to defeat — said yesterday it was “within a few weeks” of besieging Raqqa on the north bank of the Euphrates river.

East of Aleppo, the Isis retreat continued, with the army taking full control over the two water pumping stations serving the city and launching an attack on the Jirah air base south of Manbij.

The US announcement was followed by more unofficial briefings that up to 1,000 more troops would be sent to Kuwait as a reserve for deployment to either Iraq or Syria.

There was no comment from Syria’s government, which has opposed US troops on its territory, or Russia, where President Vladimir Putin will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan today for talks on the conflict.

But yesterday’s announcement followed a two-day meeting of the US, Russian and Turkish chiefs of staff aimed at avoiding clashes between their forces in Syria.

However, photos emerged of Syrian soldiers injured on Wednesday when Turkish artillery allegedly shelled positions that they and Russian troops had just occupied east of Manbij to form a buffer zone between the YPG and the Turkish invaders.

Speaking ahead of his visit to Moscow, Mr Erdogan insisted the YPG must abandon Manbij and “retreat back to the east of the Euphrates.”

Meanwhile, RT television journalist Lizzie Phelan reported witnessing gruesome evidence of Isis atrocities around the desert city of Palmyra, which was captured by government forces last week.

She saw the bodies of Isis child soldiers no older than 11, along with the beheaded and burnt corpses of captured government soldiers.