THE US-led coalition admitted bombing fleeing Isis gunmen on Wednesday to force them back towards the advancing Syrian army.

Some 330 Isis gunmen — including 26 travelling by ambulance— and a similar number of their civilian relatives were evacuated from an area straddling the Syrian-Lebanese border earlier this week in a ceasefire deal.

Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said warplanes struck the road west of Abu Kamal on the Iraqi border to prevent them entering Iraq.