TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to drive the Kurdish YPG militia from the Syrian town of Manbij yesterday.

He also mooted a new offensive on the YPG-held Afrin Canton to the west of the town in northern Aleppo province.

Turkish troops and proxy forces from a variety of insurgent factions invaded Aleppo province two months ago on the pretext of sealing the border against Islamic State (Isis).

But Operation Euphrates Shield has also targeted the YPG, which is trying to link Afrin with Manbij and Kobane to the east of the Euphrates river.

Mr Erdogan said: “There is an effort to form a terror corridor … along the border but we will not permit this.”

Turkish authorities claimed Syrian government helicopters had bombed its Free Syrian Army henchmen fighting the YPG in the village of Tal Madiq on Tuesday, killing at least two of them. The Syrian air force denied the claim.

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said on Tuesday that he would resurrect his plan to capture the Isis stronghold of Raqqa using YPG troops — an offensive Turkey also wants in on.

He also admitted the number of US troops in Syria had crept up from 50 to 300.

National Intelligence director James Clapper warned that if the US tred to imposed a no-fly zone over Syria, Russia would make good on its threat to shoot down US aircraft.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, architect of the West’s war on Syria, backs a no-fly zone, but her Republican rival Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that would lead to “world war three.”