66000 Syrians Flee Into Turkey

 

Some 66,000 refugees - mainly Syrian Kurds - have crossed into Turkey in 24 hours since Friday Sep 19,2014, officials say, as Islamic State militants advance in northern Syria.

Turkey opened its border on Friday to Syrians fleeing the Kurdish town of Kobane in fear of an IS attack.
The UN refugee agency said it was boosting relief efforts as hundreds of thousands more could cross the border.
IS controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, and has seized dozens of villages around Kobane, also called Ayn al-Arab.
Turkey - which shares a border with Iraq and Syria - has taken in more than 847000 refugees since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began three years ago.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) said in a statement that, along with the Turkish government, it was preparing for the possibility of hundreds of thousands more refugees arriving over the coming days, as the battle for Kobane forced more people to flee.
It added that the town had been living in relative safety for much of the Syrian conflict and as many as 200,000 internally displaced people had found refuge there.