Turkish troops used tear gas to disperse a crowd of Kurds seeking to enter Syria to defend their ethnic kin there against Islamic State, whose advance in the past week has driven tens of thousands to flee.
Kurds clashed with Turkish security forces near the border for a second day Monday, after the main Kurdish parties in Turkey called on people to go to the aid of the Syrian Kurds. Militants have seized dozens of villages around the town of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobani to the Kurds, in northern Syria near the Turkish border, forcing the mostly Kurdish residents to flee their homes.
More than 130,000 of them have taken refuge in Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said late Monday after a Cabinet meeting, according to the official Anadolu news agency. Thousands of male refugees found a way back across the border into Syria to rejoin the fight against the militants, after taking their families to safety in Turkey, the Kurdish news agency Firat said.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.