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          IS Attacks Send Thousands of Syrian Kurds Fleeing to Turkey

   by Reuters

   Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds have crossed into Turkey in the past
   24 hours, fleeing an advance by Islamic State fighters who have seized
   dozens of villages close to the border and are advancing on a Syrian
   town.

   Also Saturday, Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
   more than 300 Kurdish fighters have crossed into Syria from Turkey to
   defend a Kurdish area from attack by Islamic State militants.

   The rights group said the fighters are heading for the border town of
   Kobani in northern Syria, where Islamic State fighters have been
   seizing territory for the past week.

   Opens border

   Meanwhile, Turkey opened a stretch of the frontier on Friday after
   Kurdish civilians fled their homes, fearing an imminent attack on the
   town of Ayn al-Arab. Islamic State fighters are now within 15
   kilometers (9 miles) of the town, also known as Kobani, according to a
   Kurdish commander on the ground.

   The Islamic State group's advances in northern Syria have prompted
   calls for help by the region's Kurds who fear a massacre in Kobani. The
   town sits in a strategic position on the border and has prevented the
   radical Sunni Muslim militants from consolidating their gains across
   northern Syria.

   "Clashes started in the morning and we fled by car. We were 30 families
   in total," said Lokman Isa, 34, a farmer who had crossed into Turkey.

   He said Islamic State fighters entered his village, Celebi, with heavy
   weapons and the Kurdish forces battling them only had light arms.

   "They have destroyed every place they have gone to. We saw what they
   did in Iraq in Sinjar and we fled in fear," he told Reuters in the
   Turkish town of Suruc.

   Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told CNN Turk television
   on Saturday that 45,000 Syrian Kurds had crossed a 30-kilometer section
   of the border since Turkish authorities opened it on Friday.

   "The United States, Turkey, Russia, friendly countries must help us.
   They must bomb Islamic State. All they can do is cut off heads, they
   have nothing to do with Islam," said Mustafa Saleh, a 30 year-old water
   industry worker in Suruc at the site of a boarding school where tents
   were being set up for refugees.

   "I would have fought to my last drop of blood against Islamic State but
   I had to bring the women and children," Saleh said.

   Kurd forces leave villages

   Kurdish forces have evacuated at least 100 villages on the Syrian side
   since the Islamic State group's onslaught started on Tuesday and have
   abandoned control of scores as the militant group gained ground.

   "Islamic State sees Kobani like a lump in the body, they think it is in
   their way," said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for
   Human Rights, which monitors Syria's civil war.

   The Islamic State group has executed at least 11 Kurdish civilians,
   including boys, in the villages it has seized near Kobani, the
   Observatory said.

   More than 300 Kurdish fighters crossed into Syria from Turkey late on
   Friday to help push back Islamic State group's advance, he said, adding
   it was not clear which group the fighters belonged to.

   "Islamic State is killing any civilian it finds in a village," Mustefa
   Ebdi, director of a local radio station called Arta FM, told Reuters by
   telephone from the northern outskirts of Kobani. He said he could see
   thousands of people waiting to cross the border into Turkey.

   "People prefer to flee than to remain and die," Ebdi said. "(The
   Islamic State group wants) to eliminate anything that is Kurdish. This
   is creating a state of terror

   "I confirm that massacres have happened in the villages of eastern
   Kobani (province)," he added.

   On his Facebook page Ebdi said the killing of 34 civilians - women,
   elderly, children and the disabled - had been documented. He said
   residents of 200 villages had been forced to flee.

   About 1,500 refugees were staying at the camp in Suruc, but most are
   spread out across the region, staying with relatives.

   "It is a very painful situation," said Fadile Genco, 60, weeping as her
   eight children gathered around because her 67-year-old husband had
   stayed on in Syria to fight the militants.

   "If my husband does not come what will I do with all the children,"
   Genco said.

   Fighting continues

   Esmat al-Sheikh, head of Kurdish forces defending the town, said
   clashes were taking place to the north and east on Saturday.

   Islamic State fighters using rockets, artillery, tanks and armored
   vehicles had advanced further towards Kobani overnight and were now
   within 15 kilometers, he told Reuters by telephone.

   At least 18 Islamic State fighters were killed in clashes with Syrian
   Kurds overnight as the militant group took control of more villages
   around the town, according to the Observatory.

   Also Saturday, Turkey's prime minister said 49 Turkish hostages seized
   by Islamic State militants in Iraq in June have been freed.

   Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday the [1]hostages were released earlier in
   the day and have arrived safely in Turkey.

   Islamic State fighters took full control of about 30 villages near
   Kobani, which had been abandoned by Kurdish forces late on Friday,
   Abdulrahman said. Another 30 villages were under fire, he said.

   Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani called on Friday for international
   intervention to protect Kobani from the Islamic State group's advance,
   saying the insurgents must be "hit and destroyed wherever they are".

   The United States is drawing up plans for military action in Syria
   against Islamic State fighters who have seized swathes of territory in
   Syria and Iraq, proclaiming a caliphate in the heart of the Middle
   East.

   Western states have increased contact with the main Syrian Kurdish
   political party, the PYD, whose armed wing is the YPG, since Islamic
   State fighters led a lightning advance in Iraq in June.

   The YPG said it has 50,000 fighters and should be a natural partner in
   a coalition the United States is trying to assemble to fight Islamic
   State militants.

   But such cooperation could prove difficult because of Syrian Kurds'
   ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group listed as a
   terrorist organization by many Western states due to the militant
   campaign it has waged for Kurdish rights in Turkey.

   The PKK on Thursday called on the youth of Turkey's mainly Kurdish
   southeast to join the fight against Islamic State.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/islamic-state-attacks-syrian-kurds-fl
   ee-to-turkey/2456537.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/is-militants-release-48-turkish-hostages/2456435.html
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/islamic-state-attacks-syrian-kurds-flee-to-turkey/2456537.html