Flood of Syrian refugees fleeing IS hits 100,000 in Turkey

The number of Syrians who have flooded into Turkey to escape Islamic State (IS) militants has reached 100,000.

Flood of Syrian refugees fleeing IS hits 100,000 in Turkey

The number of Syrians who have flooded into Turkey to escape Islamic State (IS) militants has reached 100,000.

Most of them are Kurds, and their arrival since Thursday has pushed the conflict close to the Turkish border.

IS is the al Qaida breakaway group which has established a caliphate, ruled by its harsh version of Islamic law, in territory it captured straddling the Syria-Iraq border.

It has in recent days advanced into Kurdish regions of Syria that border Turkey, where fleeing refugees reported atrocities that included stonings, beheadings and the torching of homes.

Yesterday, heavy clashes broke out between IS militants and Kurdish fighters only miles from the Syrian border town of Kobani.

The IS was bombarding villagers with tanks, artillery and multiple rocket launchers, said Nasser Haj Mansour, a defence official in Syria’s Kurdish region.

“They are even targeting civilians who are fleeing,” He said.

At a border crossing where Turkish authorities were processing the refugees, Osman Abbas said he and 20 relatives were fleeing a village near Kobani when IS fighters shot one of his sons.

The 35-year-old had tried to return to their home to recover valuables while the rest of the family fled.

“They took our village, they took our house, they killed my son,” he said. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

As refugees flooded in, Turkey closed the border crossing at Kucuk Kendirciler to Turkish Kurds in a move aimed at preventing them from joining the fight in Syria.

A day earlier, hundreds of Kurdish fighters had poured into Syria through the small Turkish village, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Clashes broke out as Kurds trying to approach the crossing from inside Turkey scuffled with security forces, who responded with tear gas, paint pellets and water cannons.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the Kurdish protesters had hurled stones at the security forces.

Two people were seriously injured in the clashes, including one Kurdish politician who was taken to hospital, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions’ Party said.

Despite the huge number of new refugees, Turkish authorities said they were ready to deal with the influx. The conflict has pushed more than a million Syrians over the border.

“We have been prepared for this,” said Dogan Eskinat, a spokesman for Turkey’s disaster management agency. “We are also prepared for worse.”

The SOHR said IS has taken control of 64 villages in northern Syria since the fighting began there on Wednesday.

It says that the fate of 800 Kurds from these villages is unknown, adding that IS had killed at least 11 civilians, including two boys.

The Aleppo Media Centre, another activist group, said yesterday’s battles were concentrated on the southern and eastern suburbs of Kobani.

UNHCR spokeswoman Selin Unal said most of those coming across the border are Kurdish women, children and the elderly.

She urged the international community to step up aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey.

“Turkey is assisting with all needs but it’s huge numbers,” she said.

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