SYRIAN troops attempted to cut off Western-backed al-Qaida mercenaries pouring reinforcements into east Aleppo yesterday.

The newly dubbed Levant Conquest Front  (LCF) — formerly the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s Syrian branch — claimed it had repelled the army’s counterattack on the Ramouseh district cement factory.

Late on Sunday the force said it was sending many more troops into east Aleppo through the breach made in army lines to the south-west over the weekend in preparation to capture the rest of the city.