TURKEY-SYRIA CRISIS/REFUGEES UPDATE More than 130,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing Islamic State crossed into Turkey

Record ID: 274647

  • Title: TURKEY-SYRIA CRISIS/REFUGEES UPDATE More than 130,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing Islamic State crossed into Turkey
  • Date: 22nd September 2014
  • Summary: SURUC, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 22, 2014) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF REFUGEES GATHERING AT CHECKPOINT REFUGEES CROSSING THROUGH CHECKPOINT ANKARA, TURKEY (SEPTEMBER 22, 2014) (REUTERS) TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER NUMAN KURTULMUS ADDRESSING JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, NUMAN KURTULMUS, SAYING: "The number tha
  • Embargoed: 7th October 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA81462LNZGK2Y523C04YVEW4O1
  • Story Text: More than 130,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing an advance by Islamic State militants have crossed into Turkey in the past three days and the authorities are preparing for more, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday (September 22).
    "We are prepared for the worst scenario, which is an influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees," Kurtulmus told reporters in the Turkish capital Ankara.
    Islamic State militants tightened their noose on a northern Syrian border town on Sunday as the United Nations said the number of Syrian Kurds fleeing into neighbouring Turkey may have topped 100,000 and was likely to go much higher.
    Residents fleeing the frontier town of Ayn al-Arab, known in Kurdish as Kobani, and its surrounding villages said the militants were executing people of all ages in the areas they had seized to create a climate of fear and slavish obedience.
    Residents in Kobani said Islamic State was within 15 km (9 miles) of the town and closing in from the east, west and south.
    The town's strategic location has been blocking the Sunni Muslim insurgents from consolidating their gains in northern Syria. The group tried to take the town in July but was repulsed by local forces backed by Kurdish fighters from Turkey.
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