TURKEY-MIDEAST CRISIS/BORDER REFUGEES Fleeing Kurds cross Turkish border from Syria

Record ID: 274665

  • Title: TURKEY-MIDEAST CRISIS/BORDER REFUGEES Fleeing Kurds cross Turkish border from Syria
  • Date: 3rd October 2014
  • Summary: YUMURTALIK, TURKEY (OCTOBER 3, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CARS DRIVING THROUGH BORDER CROSSING REFUGEES WAITING BEHIND FENCES ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER STATIONED ON BORDER VARIOUS OF REFUGEES CROSSING THROUGH THE GATE (SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) SYRIAN KURD, CEMAL MOHAMMED, SAYING: "We are not living in the city. We are living in a village. They stormed our village, plundered t
  • Embargoed: 18th October 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5UEX826IQD35SVRD7KX09F6PR
  • Story Text: Fleeing Syrian Kurds continued to cross into Turkey (October 3) while Islamic State insurgents tightened their grip on a Syrian border town despite coalition air strikes meant to weaken them, sending thousands more Kurdish refugees into Turkey and dragging Ankara deeper into the conflict.
    More than 150,000 refugees have fled Kobani over the past two weeks alone, with a steady exodus continuing. Officials from Turkey's AFAD disaster management agency said some 4,000 crossed on Wednesday, and a similar figure the day before.
    Some of the terrified refugees crossing at Yumurtalik told of their ordeal.
    "They stormed our village, plundered the houses. We fled because we were terrified. We heard they slaughter people so we couldn't return there and we came here," refugee Cemal Mohammed said.
    Muslum Mohammed Bozan added: "We've heard that they killed two of my relatives who remained there. We didn't know what happened to them because we couldn't go there. So we came to Turkey. Thank God, we are welcomed in Turkey, they help us here. We lost everything we had back at home."
    U.S. led forces, which have been bombing Islamic State targets in Syria since last week as well as in Iraq, hit a village near the Syrian town of Kobani on Wednesday and strikes were reported further south overnight, Kurdish sources in the town said.
    But they seemed to do little to stop the Islamists' advance.
    Turkey accuses Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of stoking the growth of Islamic State through sectarian policies and believes the instability on its 900 km (560 mile) border will only deepen if he clings to power.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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