TURKEY demanded yesterday that Iraqi troops halt operations to close the Isis escape route from the besieged city of Mosul.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin called on Turkey’s Nato ally the United States to force the Iraqi army to withdraw troops from the outskirts of Tal Afar, west of Mosul.

The US-backed plan for liberating Mosul left the western approaches to the city open, allowing the Isis death cult to escape into Syria to fight the government, which Washington wants to see overthrown.

Turkey claims the Iraqi Shi’ite Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) would persecute the Turkmen minority in Tal Afar. Two senior PMU officers confirmed yesterday that Iraqi regular army units had joined them on the front line following the militia’s capture of the air base south of the city last week.

“(Iraqi) Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had pledged, through the United States, that the PMU would not enter Tal Afar, but on the ground, it seems they did enter,” he said.

Mr Kalin insisted Ankara “will not remain silent” and “warns the Iraqi government, through the United States, that it ought to honour its commitments.”

On Saturday, Iraqi media reported that Isis leaders and their families were fleeing Mosul before the PMU blocked their way out.

The PMU has also vowed that, once Isis is driven from Iraq, it will pursue the terrorist organisation into Syria.

Syrian MP Mahmoud Bokhadjar said the government would welcome the PMU’s aid “in the liberation operations against the criminal groups.”

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