The leading Syrian Kurdish militia yesterday said it would withdraw from Manbij, easing fears of a direct clash between Nato allies Washington and Ankara over the strategic northern town.

The Kurds were key players in the fight against the Islamic State group, whose last holdout fighters have launched a deadly offensive against pro-regime forces further south.

Manbij is a Sunni Arab-majority town that lies just 30 kilometres south of the Turkish border, and where US and French troops belonging to the Western coalition against IS are stationed. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) spearheaded a victorious offensive in 2016 to rid Manbij of IS and had kept military advisers in the town to train local forces.

The Pentagon said US troops would remain in the town.

For months, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to march on Manbij, accusing the YPG of being the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is blacklisted inTurkey.

US President Donald Trump has said he intends to pull US troops out of Syria but his defence establishment has stressed it wants to retain a presence to fully defeat IS.

On Sunday, IS fighters launched a raid on villages controlled by mostly Shia forces allied to the Syrian government in the Euphrates Valley. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “fierce" fighting had left at least 45 dead among pro-regime ranks and 26 among IS fighters.