Hundreds of Kurds enter Syria to fight ISIL as Turkey increases security on Rojava border

ŞANLIURFA

Several young men from the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır are among those who arrived in Kobane to fight

Hundreds of Kurdish fighters have entered the predominantly Syrian Kurdish region known as Rojava in recent days to battle jihadists besieging the Kurdish city of Kobane, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdul Rahman said July 14, as the Turkish army beefed up its security on the border.

“At least 800 Kurdish fighters crossed the Turkish-Syrian border to help their comrades in Ain al-Arab [Kobane in Kurdish], which is under total siege by Islamic State jihadists,” Abdul Rahman told Agence France-Presse.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is in control of the Syrian districts of Tal Abyad and Jarablus west of Rojava, has been fighting for more than two weeks with Kurdish forces of the Democratic Union Party (PYD).

The clashes have prompted the Turkish army to increase the number of troops along its border with northeastern Syria, as ISIL continues to attack villages close to the border in an attempt to capture Kobane.

Numerous security measures have been implemented to monitor the situation, with scores of tanks and armored vehicles being dispatched next to areas where intense fighting across the border is taking place. Patrols by Turkish forces along the border have also been ramped up.

The Turkish military has increased its presence in these areas where the tents have been constructed in support of Syrian Kurds order to prevent border crossings, after numerous people went to Syria to join the PYD.

Meanwhile, the population of Kobane has reportedly soared to 400,000 due to a large influx of refugees fleeing ISIL militants and settling in the border town, prompting new concerns of a new refugee inflow to Turkey. The crossing point between Kobane and Mürşitpınar, in the Şanlıurfa province, is usually opened two days a week for humanitarian aid to be transported into Syria.