Turkish forces clash with Kurds trying to cross into Syria

Turkish troops fired teargas to disperse scores of people seeking to cross the border into Syria, where Kurds are struggling to repel an onslaught by Islamic State militants.

Live footage from Turkey's border with Syria on SkyNews Arabia showed troops in anti-riot gear deploying water-cannon trucks against protesters, some of whom were pelting security forces with projectiles in the second day of clashes in the area.

Fighting between Islamic State militants and Syria's Kurds have forced 130,000 to flee into Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said today in televised remarks from the border. Kurdish forces affiliated with the Turkish-Kurd rebel group called the PKK has called for volunteers to repel attacks by the al-Qaeda breakaway group.

Kurds in Syria are the latest minority targeted by Islamic State, which has rampaged through the country and neighboring Iraq, redrawing borders imposed by colonial powers after World War I. At least 21 militants have been killed since last night after the group took direct hits in fighting with Kurds, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on witness accounts to document the country's civil war, said.

Islamic State militants now control about more than one- third of Turkey's 900-kilometer-long border with Syria, Kurtulmus, the deputy Turkish premier, said today.

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