SYRIA’S ARMY cut off invading Turkish troops’ route to the Isis stronghold of Raqqa yesterday amid reported clashes between Ankara-backed insurgents and government soldiers.

Syrian troops broke through Isis lines south-east of al-Bab and captured a string of villages up to the Kurdish YPG militia’s lines around Manbij, west of the Euphrates river.

The swift advance left a small pocket of some seven villages under nominal Isis control — which the Turkish army and its Free Syrian Army (FSA) allies moved to take over immediately.