US-BACKED Kurdish separatist militia fought their way into the Islamic State (Isis)-occupied northern Syrian town of Manbij yesterday.

The YPG assault followed a two-week siege of the town near the Turkish border.Heavy clashes were reported in western districts after the guerillas captured the Kutab roundabout about 1.5 miles from the town centre.

Isis counter-attacked with suicide car bombs.The armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a sister organisation of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party, is nominally allied with small Arab militia under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

US and French special forces are fighting alongside the SDF and YPG in its push towards the border town on Jarabulus, the main Isis supply route into Syria from the north.

Meanwhile the Syrian air force blitzed Isis forces to the south-east near Ithriyah, where their counter-offensive had driven government troops back dozens of miles from the outskirts of al-Tabqah.

The soldiers have suffered heavy casualties since the weekend, when their recent gains were reversed.

Al-Tabqah and its nearby air base on the southern banks of the Euphrates river are seen as key to liberating Isis stronghold Raqqa.

Meanwhile UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said the UN would discuss options for restarting elusive talks next Wednesday, following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in St Petersburg last week.