TURKISH proxy forces clashed with Kurdish militia near Manbij in Syria yesterday after Ankara confirmed the northern town in Aleppo province was its next target.

Free Syrian Army factions in the Turkish military Euphrates Shield invasion claimed to have seized two villages from People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia south-west of Manbij.

Earlier Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed assertions by an adviser on Monday that the invasion force would attempt to drive the Kurds from all the territory west of the Euphrates river that they liberated from Isis last year.

On Monday the Syrian army rolled through Isis territory south-east of al-Bab — occupied by Turkey last week — reaching YPG lines east of the villages seized yesterday.

The manoeuvre blocked Turkey’s intended path to the Isis stronghold of Raqqa in central Syria — the prized coveted by all three forces.

But a commander of Turkey’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said: “Turkey’s talk of going to Raqqa is a complete bluff.”

Murat Karayilan said: “Turkey has three objectives when it talks of Raqqa and Manbij.

“The first is for internal politics, to say: ‘I’m strong and can attack wherever I want.

“The second is that Turkey wants to remain in al-Bab. The agreement with Russia was that they would hand over Bab to the [Syrian] regime after taking it. But they will not keep this promise.”

The third, he said, was to persuade the US to support Ankara’s war on the Kurds.

Meanwhile Lebanon’s alMasdar news reported signs that thousands of Iraqi PKK guerillas and peshmerga troops loyal to the Kurdistan regional government were crossing into Syria to join the Raqqa offensive.