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).