Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds crossed into Turkey yesterday, fleeing an advance by Islamic State fighters who have seized dozens of villages close to the border and are advancing on a Syrian town.
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 is now within 15 km (9 miles) of the town, also known as Kobani, according to a Kurdish commander on the ground.
Islamic State’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-km section of the border since Turkish authorities opened it on Friday.
Kurdish forces have evacuated at least 100 villages on the Syrian side since the Islamic State onslaught started on Tuesday and have abandoned control of scores as the militant group gained ground.
