WESTERN-backed insurgents in northern Syria clawed back some ground from Islamic State (Isis) yesterday after losing a village to Kurdish militia.

The Turkish- and Saudi-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) recaptured the villages of Kafr Shoush and Braghida, which lie east of its beleaguered stronghold of Azaz in the north of Aleppo province, gaining a desperately needed buffer between the town and Isis extremists.

A sudden Isis conterattack on Thursday night rapidly overwhelmed the disparate FSA factions and cut the Azaz pocket near the Turkish border in two, leaving Marea to the south cut off and facing imminent capture.