At least a dozen people have been killed in protests by Kurds across Turkey as they demand that the government to do more to break the siege of the Syrian border town of Kobani.
For days, Turkish tanks have deployed to the border within sight of the fighting between the self-declared Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and Kobani's Kurdish peshmerga defenders.
"Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters who burnt cars and tyres as they took to the streets mainly in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish eastern and southeastern provinces late on Tuesday."Earlier, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had warned that Kobane was about to fall into the hands of ISIL. "Clashes also erupted in the capital Ankara and in the country's biggest city, Istanbul, where almost 100 people were detained and 30 people were injured, including eight police officers, the Istanbul Governorship said in a news release early on Wednesday."
Elsewhere, there have been Kurdish protests in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. In Brussels "about 50 protesters smashed a glass door and pushed past police to get into the European Parliament. Once inside, some protesters were received by Parliament President Martin Schulz, who promised to discuss the Kurds' plight with NATO and EU leaders," according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, several Syrian human rights groups called on the world to save Kobani from ISIS as new U.S.-led airstrikes targeted the extremists near the town on Wednesday, The AP reports.
Even so, Syrian Kurds are reportedly holding back ISIS forces, according to The Guardian, which describes "street-to-street fighting" in the city, but quotes a resident as saying "Kurdish fighters who live in the area have the upper hand." The newspaper says:
"The resident, Mahmoud, described seeing Isis fighters in the streets looking relaxed and walking around freely. But, he said, those who had entered so casually were soon killed by Kurdish fighters with superior knowledge of sites throughout the city for guerilla-style fighting. More militants soon took their place, however."
NPR's Peter Kenyon says "one reason for the protests is that Kurds have been basically told by their leaders to go help the Syrian Kurds across in Kobani who are fighting ISIS, but the Turkish border guards aren't letting them go.
"Kobani is so close to the border that people can literally watch it begin to fall. They can't do anything to help, and the anger after these deaths, especially, is only likely to grow," Peter tells Morning Edition.
"If you step back from the conspiracy theories that Ankara is happy to see its long-time Kurdish enemies weakened, then a couple of things stand out: first, the Syrian Kurds don't want Turkish tanks in their territory any more than the Turks want to be there – they've been fighting for too long, at least some Kurds and Turks," Peter says.
"The second thing is that the arguments against ground intervention in Syria at all are as compelling as ever. For years, Turkey has been calling for safe zones, no-fly zones, areas where Syrians can be safe without becoming refugees," he adds.
In Iraq, Islamic State militants reportedly shot down an Iraqi military attack helicopter, killing the pilot and co-pilot, the AP reports.
Two Iraqi officials said Islamic State militants fired a shoulder-launched missile at the Bell 407 helicopter, which crashed just about 130 miles north of Baghdad, the AP says.
Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
