By
Rebecca Collard and Brian Murphy
BEIRUT — Turkish paramilitary
forces locked down stretches of the Syrian border Monday after facing a flood
of more than 130,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the latest advance by Islamic
State militants.
The move by Turkey reflects
desperation on both sides of the frontier.
Turkey has been overwhelmed by
more than 1.5 million people seeking haven from the Syrian civil war, and
officials fear another humanitarian crisis on Turkish territory. Turkey’s
deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, said that at least 130,000 additional
refugees have poured across the Syrian border in the past three days.
In Syria’s Kurdish region, the
push by the Islamic State has exposed weaknesses in Kurdish defenses and could
leave civilians nowhere to run if the border remains sealed.
U.S.-led forces have stepped up
air attacks on Islamic State targets in Iraq, but are deeply divided over
whether to expand the offensive to Syria — where President Bashar al-Assad is
battling rebels in a separate conflict that began more than three years ago.
“The official borders with
Turkey are closed by the Turkish authorities,” said Redur Xelil, a spokesman
for the People’s Protection Units, one of the Kurdish groups fighting the
Islamic State. “However, the refugees are crossing through wire fences in some
areas.”
At one closed border crossing,
marked by a barbed wire barrier, a line of Turkish paramilitary police stood
guard, the Reuters news agency reported. Some refugees described Islamic State
fighters conducting indiscriminate killings as they overran villages, the
report said. The claims could not be independently verified.
NATO-member Turkey has
periodically closed border crossings since the Islamic State militants began
taking over Syrian Kurdish villages Sept. 16 as they move toward the strategic
border town of Ayn al-Arab, or Kobane in Kurdish. Taking Kobane would give the
Islamic State control of a large swath of the Syrian-Turkish frontier — and
another potential route for Islamic State recruits.
But Kurdish Syrian fighters
claimed that they have halted — at least for the moment — the advance of the
militants, who have taken more than 60 Kurdish Syrian villages in the past
week. Kurdish spokesman Xelil said fighting still flared on three fronts.
Kurdish Syrian forces also
worry that they could be outgunned. The Islamic State arsenal includes
U.S.-made weapons looted from fleeing Iraqi national troops in June. Kurds,
both in Syria and Iraq, have called for international support to defend the
border area.
“An uncontrollable force at the
other side of the border is attacking civilians,” said Kurtulmus, Turkey’s
deputy prime minister. “The extent of the disaster is worse than a natural
disaster.”
The Kurdish issue adds another
level of political sensitivity for Turkey, which for decades had battled a
separatist movement in its own large Kurdish-dominated region. Turkish leaders
worry that the Islamic State threat could stir bids for greater unity and
coordination by Kurds, whose heartland spreads across Turkey, Syria and Iran.
In recent years, as Assad
battled to protect his regime in Damascus, the Syrian Kurds have increased
their autonomy and — to some degree — have protected their enclave from the
war. But now, large areas have been evacuated amid growing fears of the Islamic
State’s onslaught.
The U.N. refugee agency said
Sunday that Turkey was preparing for the possibility of hundreds of thousands
of new refugees.
“I don’t think in the last
three and a half years we have seen 100,000 people crossing in two days, and so
this is a bit of a measure of how the situation is unfolding,” the U.N. refugee
agency’s representative in Turkey, Carol Batchelor, told Reuters.
The United Nations said its
refugee assistance campaign is underfunded, and it has appealed to the
international community for more money.
Turkey is home to more than 1.5
million Syrian refugees. Like most of Syria’s neighbors, Turkey is struggling
with the humanitarian spillover from Syria’s civil war and now the Islamic
State surge. More than 3 million Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring
states, including Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
On Sunday, Turkish border
troops used tear gas and water cannons to disperse crowds on the border
reportedly demonstrating in solidarity with the Kurdish Syrian militia battling
the Islamic State fighters.
A day earlier, the Islamic
State freed 46 Turks, including Turkey’s consul general in the Iraqi city of
Mosul. But Turkey appears reluctant to engage in frontline battles against the
militants.
While the United States and
other allies insist that there are no plans to commit ground troops, some
political and military figures have suggested that airstrikes alone may not be
enough. Former British prime minister Tony Blair, writing on the Web site of
his Faith Foundation, acknowledged that there is “no appetite” in the West to
send ground forces, but it should not be ruled out “if it is absolutely
necessary.”
Murphy reported from
Washington. Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report.
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