By Jonny Hogg
KARACA Turkey (Reuters) - Islamic Accompaniment fighters anchored their annoy of the cardinal boondocks of Kobani on Syria's bound with Turkey on Friday, blame aback Kurdish armament and sending shells into Turkish territory, assemblage said.
The Sunni Muslim insurgents, who launched their beforehand on Kobani added than a anniversary ago, besieging it from three sides, took ascendancy of aerial arena to the west of the boondocks and a apple to the east in angry fighting.
Added than 140,000 Kurds accept fled Kobani and surrounding villages aback aftermost Friday, bridge into Turkey. The U.N. refugee bureau has said the absolute 400,000 citizenry of the boondocks could flee.
Kurds watching the angry west of Kobani from hills on the Turkish ancillary of the bound -- Syrian refugees and Turks amid them -- said they feared an approaching Islamic Accompaniment beforehand on the boondocks and alleged for U.S.-led air strikes on the insurgents.
"After actuality it's collapsed to Kobani. It'll be accessible (for them)," said one Turkish Kurd who gave his name as Mohammed.
"Where is America, breadth is England, why are bodies not helping?" said addition villager, Ali.
The annoy of Kobani has fueled Kurdish acrimony not aloof at the Sunni insurgents but additionally adjoin the Turkish state. Kurdish militants fought a three-decade affront for greater rights in southeast Turkey, and abounding Kurds allege Ankara of acknowledging the Islamist insurgents adjoin their indigenous kin.
Several hundred caught protesters who had aggregate on the Turkish ancillary of the bound in adherence with the Syrian Kurds at one point bankrupt through a acid wire fence and rushed appear Kobani in an credible bid to advice avert it.
The group, including pro-Kurdish politicians from Turkey, afterwards aggregate on a railway band on the Syrian ancillary of the border, clashing with Turkish aegis armament who accursed breach gas and were initially abashed to let them aback in.
U.S.-led air strikes accept targeted Islamic Accompaniment fighters abroad in Syria but some Kurdish aggressive admiral accept said they fabricated the bearings in Kobani added ambiguous by blame the Sunni insurgents appear the Turkish border.
SHELLING AND GUNFIRE
Islamic Accompaniment fighters appeared to accept taken ascendancy of a acropolis 10 km (6 miles) west of Kobani from breadth the YPG, the capital Kurdish armed accumulation in arctic Syria, had been advancing them in contempo days.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said Islamic Accompaniment fighters had additionally taken ascendancy of a apple about 7 km to the east of Kobani.
"We're not abiding how abounding bodies are larboard in Kobani, but the safe breadth is shrinking," said Carol Batchelor, Turkey adumbrative for U.N. refugee bureau UNHCR.
The bang of accoutrements and bursts of machinegun blaze echoed beyond the border. Two shells hit a acreage on the Turkish side, admitting there were no actual letters of casualties.
"We're afraid. We're demography the car and abrogation today," said acreage buyer Huseyin Turkmen, 60, as baby accoutrements blaze rang out in the Syrian hills aloof to the south.
Turkey has so far beneath to booty a frontline role in the U.S.-led affiliation adjoin Islamic Accompaniment but acerb denies the Kurdish accusations that it is acknowledging the insurgents, adage they affectation a grave blackmail to its civic security.
President Tayyip Erdogan, abiding from the U.N. affairs in New York, afresh his alarm for a absorber breadth on the bound central Syrian territory, a safe anchorage for refugees he envisages would be adequate by an internationally-policed no-fly zone.
"The accomplish that charge to be taken from now on should accomplish abiding that the aforementioned disasters do not appear afresh but additionally ... advice defended our borders," he told reporters in Istanbul.
Kurdish armament said on Thursday they had pushed aback the beforehand on Kobani, additionally accepted as Ayn al-Arab, but appealed for air strikes on the insurgents' tanks and abundant weapons.
"The clashes are affective amid east, west and south of Kobani ... The three abandon are active," Idris Nassan, agent adopted abbot in the Kobani canton's Kurdish administration, said by buzz from the centermost of the town.
"They are aggravating adamantine to ability Kobani. There is attrition actuality by YPG, by Kobani and some volunteers from arctic Kurdistan -- Turkish Kurds -- who are advancing to allotment in the efforts of Kobani. They accept fabricated a able response," he said.
Kobani sits on a alley bond arctic and northwestern Syria, and Kurdish ascendancy of the boondocks has prevented Islamic Accompaniment from accumulation its gains. The accumulation approved to booty the boondocks in July but was repulsed by bounded armament backed by Kurdish fighters from Turkey.
"EVERYONE HERE IS ARMED"
"If they did appear central Kobani, anybody actuality is armed, they are armed and resisting. Even me, I am the agent adopted abbot actuality in Kobani canton, but I am an armed man too. I am accessible to avert Kobani," Nassan told Reuters.
"Every girl, every adolescent man, every man who is able to fight, to backpack a gun, they are armed and they are accessible to avert and fight."
Turkey has been apathetic to acknowledge to calls for a affiliation to action Islamic Accompaniment in Syria, afraid in allotment about links amid Syrian Kurds and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade armed attack adjoin the Turkish accompaniment for greater rights in Turkey's southeast.
The PKK has apprenticed Turkey's Kurds to accompany the action to avert Kobani and accused Ankara of acknowledging Islamic State. Residents in the bound breadth say hundreds of youths accept beyond the borderland in affront of Turkish aegis forces.
Turkey denies accepting accustomed any anatomy of abutment to the Islamist militants, but Western countries say its accessible borders during Syria's three-year-old civilian war accept accustomed Islam ic Accompaniment and added abolitionist groups to abound in power.
The Turkish aggressive has in the accomplished accursed aback back shells from Syria's civilian war absent into Turkish territory, and the accumulative action for Kobani is deepening burden on Ankara to booty a added able-bodied attitude adjoin the insurgents.
(Additional advertisement by Murad Sezer, Sylvia Westall and Alexander Dziadosz in Beirut; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Andrew Roche and Kevin Liffey)
- Politics & Government
- Unrest, Conflicts & War
- Turkey
- Syria
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