ISLAMIC STATE (Isis) was driven back on three fronts in Syria yesterday as France admitted it had boots on the ground in the country.

The Kurdish YPG militia cut the road from Isis-held Manbij in northern Aleppo province to nearby al-Bab, leaving the town effectively surrounded as residents fled.

US-backed YPG fighters were reportedly assaulting the city yesterday under cover of US coalition air raids.

The US Central Command said the operation to free Manbij is part of efforts by the “moderate Syrian opposition” to drive Isis out of areas along the border with Turkey.

To the west, the so-called Free Syrian Army — backed by Turkey and the CIA — retook all the ground it had lost to Isis in the last week, capturing a string of villages east of Azaz and near the Turkish border.

There were reports of clashes between the FSA and YPG as the latter took Harbul, Bir as-Sabah and Maarat Umm Hawsh from Isis to the south.

The terrorist organisation’s forces reportedly fell back on the town of Dabiq, a place at the centre of the death cult’s apocalyptic ideology.

In France, the Defence Ministry confirmed that it too had forces working with the YPG, following last week’s remarks to that effect by Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

More Western forces massed in the Mediterranean, where a second US navy aircraft carrier battle group was approaching the Straits of Gibraltar.

The USS Dwight D Eisenhower and accompanying missile cruisers will join the USS Harry S Truman’s strike group.

Earlier this week, an anonymous US official told the Wall Street Journal that the carriers served as a warning to Syria’s ally Russia.

On the Raqqa front, Syrian troops liberated the village of Bir Inbaj from Isis, just two miles from the Resafa crossroads leading to the strategic town of al-Tabqah and a nearby air base.

Taking al-Tabqah would cut off the Isis forces in north Aleppo from their stronghold of Raqqa, with the army within striking distance of the latter city.

But in south-west Aleppo, al-Qaida affiliate the Nusra Front repelled an army counterattack to regain the villages of Hamirah and Qarasi.

Nusra and its Western-backed allies launched a major offensive in the province last week, apparently timed to derail the army’s latest offensive against Isis.