Some 45,000 mainly Syrian Kurds have crossed into Turkey in the past 24 hours, officials say, as Islamic State militants advance in northern Syria. Turkey opened its border on Friday to Syrians who had fled the Kurdish town of Kobane in fear of an IS attack. Activists say some 300 Kurdish fighters have crossed into Syria from Turkey to help defend the strategic town.
IS controls large areas of Syria and Iraq and has seized dozens of villages around Kobane, also called Ayn al-Arab. Turkey – which shares a border with Iraq and Syria – has taken in more than 847,000 refugees since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began three years ago.
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Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus confirmed on Saturday that 45,000 refugees had crossed the border within a 24-hour period. “No country in the world can take in 45,000 refugees in one night, bring them here unharmed and find them a shelter without a problem,” he said.
Hundreds of people have crossed over from Syria into Turkey and thousands more are waiting on the other side of the border. Families are waiting for their loved ones to cross over and join them. We can see trucks and buses waiting for them, as well as an ambulance. An injured man told us he had been hurt by a landmine on the Syrian side of the border.
The Turkish army is stationed in the area, patrolling but not interfering. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 300 Kurdish fighters had joined Syrian Kurdish ranks in the Kobane area to fend off the IS advance. The activist group did not specify which Kurdish group the fighters belonged to.
“Islamic State sees Kobane like a lump in the body: they think it is in their way,” the observatory’s Rami Abdulrahman said. Syrian activists say IS has seized as many as 60 villages surrounding Kobane since fighting began earlier this week. The observatory said on Saturday that at least 11 Kurds had been executed by IS, with the fate of some 800 residents who fled the villages “unknown”.
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