ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds have crossed into Turkey over the past day, fleeing an advance by fighters affiliated with the jihadist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) who have seized dozens of villages close to the border, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Saturday.
Turkey opened a stretch of the frontier on Friday after Kurdish civilians fled their homes, fearing an imminent attack on the border town of Ayn al-Arab, known as Kobani in Kurdish.
"Around 45,000 Syrian Kurds have crossed the border as of now from eight entrance points along a 30-km distance from Akcakale to Mursitpinar since we opened the border yesterday," Kurtulmus told CNN Turk television.
Islamic State's advances in northern Syria have prompted calls for help by the region's Kurds who fear an impending massacre in the town of Kobani, which sits in a strategic position close to the Turkish border.
ISIS, the radical Sunni Muslim group which has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, proclaiming a caliphate in the heart of the Middle East has been targeting non-Muslim residents in the areas of Syria and Iraq where it has seized land. The group gained power during the revolution against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011.
In August, a group of tens of thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority sought refuge near from ISIS fighters on an Iraqi mountain. The situation was among the factors that led President Barack Obama, who described it as a "potential act of genocide," to launch airstrikes on ISIS in Iraq. This month, Obama expanded military action against the group and the United States is drawing up plans for operations to combat ISIS in Syria.
At least 18 Islamic State fighters were killed in clashes with Syrian Kurds overnight as the militant group took control of more villages around the town, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war.
Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani called on Friday for international intervention to protect Kobani from the Islamic State advance, saying the insurgents must be "hit and destroyed wherever they are".
(Reuters Reporting by Asli Kandemir and Sylvia Westall; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Janet Lawrence)