Turkey opened a stretch of the frontier yesterday after Kurdish civilians fled their homes. They are fearing an imminent attack on the border town of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobani.
A Kurdish commander on the ground said the so-called Islamic State had advanced to within 15km of the town.
Local Kurds said they feared a massacre in Kobani, whose strategic location has been blocking the radical Sunni Muslim militants from consolidating their gains across northern Syria.
- The US has said it is prepared to carry out airstrikes in Syria to stop the advances of the so-called Islamic State(ISIS/ISIL).
US forces have bombed the group in Iraq at the request of the government.
It is unclear when or where any military action might take place in Syria, whose president, Basha ral-Assad, Washington says is no longer legitimate.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0920/645197-syrian-kurds-turkey/
20/9/14
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At least 300 Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into Syria overnight to battle ISIL trying to seize a strategic border town, a monitor said Saturday....
ReplyDeleteThe Syrian opposing Observatory said the Kurds had joined the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in their fight against the ISIL as it seeks to capture the town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane to the Kurds.
The fighting around the strategic town has prompted a mass exodus into Turkey, which opened its border on Friday to fleeing Kurds and has since received 45,000 people, according to officials.
The clashes broke out on Tuesday evening, and the ISIL 'jihadists' have since seized 60 Kurdish villages in a lightening campaign.
The Observatory said fighting was continuing on Saturday, with heavy clashes in the vicinity of the town.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=171994&cid=23&fromval=1
20/9/14
As many as 100,000 Syrian refugees have crossed into Turkey since Friday, officials said Sunday....
ReplyDeleteThe refugees, including women and children, are crossing the border by first entering an area built by the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, known by the initials AFAD, in Sanliurfa's Suruc district.
"As of today, the number has reached 100,000," AFAD president Fuat Oktay told The Anadolu Agency.
Oktay was inspecting the registration process of Syrians crossing the border. Speaking with refugee families, he reaffirmed that Turkey would continue its aid efforts.
The UN refugee agency has warned on Sunday that hundreds of thousands more refugees are expected to arrive in the coming days.
Turkey has taken in more than 840,000 Syrian refugees since the Syrian civil war started in March 2011.
Syrians have arrived in the Turkish province of Sanliurfa in massive numbers after ISIL’s recent attacks and siege of Kobani, which hosts nearly 200,000 internally displaced people mainly from Syria’s Kurdish minority. ISIL continues to clash with forces of pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Tell Abyad and Kobani.
http://www.aa.com.tr/en/headline/392692--un-70-000-syrians-crossed-into-turkey-in-24-hours
21/9/14
130,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing ISIS reach Turkey...
ReplyDeleteTurkish deputy PM says more than 130.000 Syrian Kurds have crossed the border into Turkey over the past few days, fleeing the brutality of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to Reuters news agency.
"We are prepared for the worst scenario, which is an influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees," Numan Kurtulmus told reporters in the capital Ankara.
The figures released by the Turkish government come shortly after the United Nations said the number of refugees was around 100,000.
The refugees have arrived since Thursday.
Syrian Kurds were leaving the area around Ain al-Arab, or Kobane, as the town is known in Kurdish, which is under attack by ISIS forces.
Until now, Kobane, the third biggest Kurdish population centre in Syria, had been relatively safe and had taken in 200,000 people displaced from elsewhere in Syria....................http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/09/22/U-N-100-000-Syrian-Kurds-have-fled-to-turkey.html
22/9/14