Mail Online :Hundreds of Turkish and Syrian Kurds tore down border fences and clashed with riot police in a show of solidarity in the fight against ISIS as the terror group tightened its siege on a strategic town.Unarmed protesters who had gathered on the Turkish side of the border in support of Syrian Kurds rushed towards Kobani in an apparent bid to defend it from the Sunni militants.The group, including pro-Kurdish politicians from Turkey, later gathered on a railway line on the Syrian side of the border, clashing with Turkish security forces who fired tear gas and were initially reluctant to let them back in.It came as Islamic State fighters moved closer to Kobani after pushing back Kurdish forces and sending shells into Turkish territory, witnesses said.US-led air strikes have targeted Islamic State fighters elsewhere in Syria but some Kurdish military officials have said they made the situation in Kobani more precarious by pushing the Sunni insurgents towards the Turkish border.The Sunni Muslim insurgents, who launched their assault on Kobani more than a week ago, besieging it from three sides, took control of high ground to the west of the town and a village to the east in fierce fighting. More than 140,000 Kurds have fled Kobani and surrounding villages since last Friday, crossing into Turkey.The UN refugee agency has said the entire 400,000 population of the town could flee. Kurds watching the fighting west of Kobani from hills on the Turkish side of the border-Syrian refugees and Turks among them-said they feared an imminent Islamic State assault on the town and called for US-led air strikes on the insurgents. ‘After here it’s flat to Kobani. It’ll be easy (for them),’ said one Turkish Kurd who gave his name as Mohammed. ‘Where is America, where is England, why are people not helping?’ said another villager, Ali.The siege of Kobani has fuelled Kurdish anger not just at the Sunni insurgents but also against the Turkish state.Kurdish militants fought a three-decade insurgency for greater rights in southeast Turkey, and many Kurds accuse Ankara of supporting the Islamist insurgents against their ethnic kin. The siege of Kobani has become a rallying point for Turkey’s Kurds, not just against the Sunni insurgents but against the Turkish state, endangering a fragile peace process with Ankara.Fuelled by suspicions that Turkey is supporting the Sunni Muslim militants, the Kurds have clashed at Mursitpinar in Turkey with security forces who have fired water cannon and tear gas partly in a bid to prevent them joining the fight across the border in the Syrian town of Kobani. s
