BRITISH special forces are secretly aiding CIA-backed insurgents in south-western Syria, it emerged yesterday.

Troops from an unspecified unit have been aiding the New Syrian Army (NSA) at the al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq, close to Jordan, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The NSA is a US-armed group made up of Syrian army deserters supposedly fighting Islamic State (Isis), but it is allied with an anti-government Free Syrian Army (FSA) faction, the Ahmad al-Abdo Martyrs Brigades and Battalions.