KURDISH militia forces continued their advance against Turkish-backed Islamist rebels in Syria yesterday in defiance of threats from Ankara.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed that the strategic border town of Azaz would not fall to the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

He threatened the “harshest reaction” if the Kurdish force did capture the town, while claiming that his army’s artillery shelling of YPG-held areas in northern Aleppo province had driven it back.

“YPG elements were forced away from around Azaz. If they approach again, they will see the harshest reaction. We will not allow Azaz to fall,” Mr Davutoglu said.

He warned that the Turkish military would render Menagh air base — recently captured by the YPG from the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front and its ally Ahrar ash-Sham — “unusable” and warned the Kurds — belatedly — not to advance east of their western enclave of Afrin or west of the River Euphrates.

But the YPG paid the Turkish prime minister no heed, capturing the town of Tall Rifat, south of Menagh, under cover of Russian air strikes while advancing on the outskirts of Azaz.

Mr Davutoglu was speaking on his jet, bound for Ukraine to discuss bilateral ties and regional developments with the Kiev regime.

He also met Crimean Tatar leader and MP Mustafa Abdulcemil Kirimoglu and condemned Russia’s reunification with the Crimea.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it would support a UN security council motion opposing Turkey’s attacks on Syria.

It also accused Ankara of helping the hard-pressed Nusra Front and Islamic State bring reinforcements and arms across the border.

And in Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini echoed Washington’s call at the weekend for Turkey to halt the bombardment.

She said: “Only a few days ago, all of us including Turkey, sitting around the table, decided steps to de-escalate and have a cessation of hostilities” and more fighting “is obviously not what we expect.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its hospital in Maaret al-Numan south of Idlib city was bombed four times yesterday, with at least seven people killed and at least eight others “missing, presumed dead.”