AP, Kucuk Kendirciler, Turkey, 21 Sep 2014 — The number of refugees seeking shelter in Turkey from the Islamic State group’s advance across northeastern Syria has hit 100,000, Turkey said Sunday as clashes broke out on the border between Turkish security guards and Kurds.
The head of Turkey’s AFAD disaster management agency, Fuat Oktay, said the figure relates to Syrians escaping the area near the Syrian border town Kobani, where fighting has raged between IS and Kurdish fighters since Thursday.
The U.N. refugee agency earlier Sunday said some 70,000 Syrians have crossed into Turkey in the past 24 hours, and that it was preparing for the arrival of hundreds of thousands more.
The Syrian refugees — most of them ethnic Kurds — have been desperate to reach Turkey and escape the advance of religious extremists barreling across Syria.
On Sunday, heavy clashes broke out between the Islamic State group and Kurdish fighters only a few miles from Kobani, which is also known as Ayn Arab.
Clashes broke out as Kurds trying to approach the crossing from inside Turkey scuffled with security forces, which attacked crowds with tear gas, paint pellets, and water. The state-run Anadolu Agency reported Kurdish protesters had hurled stones at the security forces.
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions’ Party said two people were seriously injured in the clashes, including one Kurdish legislator who was hospitalized. The party said the Kurds were protesting the Islamic State group’s attacks as well as the border closure.
The sound of gunfire could be heard from the Syrian side of the frontier where refugees were piling up after authorities shut the crossing. It was not immediately clear whether they were unable to cross or simply waiting to see what would happen.
The situation inside Syria is dire.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State group has taken control of 64 villages in northeastern Syria since the fighting began there early Wednesday. It says that the fate of 800 Kurds from these villages is unknown, adding that the Islamic State group executed 11 civilians, including two boys.
UNHCR spokeswoman, Selin Unal, said most of those coming across the border are Kurdish women, children and elderly.
She urged the international community to step up its aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey, already numbering some 1.5 million.
“Turkey is assisting with all needs but it’s huge numbers,” she said