
Hundreds of Turkish and Syrian Kurds tore down border fences and clashed with riot police in a show of solidarity in the fight against ISIS as the terror group tightened its siege on a strategic town.

Unarmed protesters who had gathered on the Turkish side of the border in support of Syrian Kurds rushed towards Kobani in an apparent bid to defend it from the Sunni militants.

The group, including pro-Kurdish politicians from Turkey, later gathered on a railway line on the Syrian side of the border, clashing with Turkish security forces who fired tear gas and were initially reluctant to let them back in.

It came as Islamic State fighters moved closer to Kobani after pushing back Kurdish forces and sending shells into Turkish territory, witnesses said.

U.S.-led air strikes have targeted Islamic State fighters elsewhere in Syria but some Kurdish military officials have said they made the situation in Kobani more precarious by pushing the Sunni insurgents towards the Turkish border.

The Sunni Muslim insurgents, who launched their assault on Kobani more than a week ago, besieging it from three sides, took control of high ground to the west of the town and a village to the east in fierce fighting.

Scroll down for video

Breaking down barriers: Kurds from Turkey (left) and Syria pull down border fences near the Turkish town of Suruc to allow them to join an alliance to fight Islamic State

Fury: Turkish Kurds destroy fences at the Syrian border during a protest against Islamic State violence towards Syrian Kurdish people in Kobani, near Suruc district

More than 140,000 Kurds have fled Kobani and surrounding villages since last Friday, crossing into Turkey.

The U.N. refugee agency has said the entire 400,000 population of the town could flee.

Kurds watching the fighting west of Kobani from hills on the Turkish side of the border -- Syrian refugees and Turks among them -- said they feared an imminent Islamic State assault on the town and called for U.S.-led air strikes on the insurgents.

'After here it's flat to Kobani. It'll be easy (for them),' said one Turkish Kurd who gave his name as Mohammed.

'Where is America, where is England, why are people not helping?' said another villager, Ali.

The siege of Kobani has fuelled Kurdish anger not just at the Sunni insurgents but also against the Turkish state.

Kurdish militants fought a three-decade insurgency for greater rights in southeast Turkey, and many Kurds accuse Ankara of supporting the Islamist insurgents against their ethnic kin.

The siege of Kobani has become a rallying point for Turkey's Kurds, not just against the Sunni insurgents but against the Turkish state, endangering a fragile peace process with Ankara.

Fuelled by suspicions that Turkey is supporting the Sunni Muslim militants, the Kurds have clashed at Mursitpinar in Turkey with security forces who have fired water cannon and tear gas partly in a bid to prevent them joining the fight across the border in the Syrian town of Kobani.

Turkish security forces use tear gas to disperse Kurdish demonstrators after they pull down a part of the Turkish-Syrian border fence

A Kurdish Syrian woman holds a AK-47 in the Turkish side of the Syrian border and a refugee waits for transport during a sandstorm

Unrest: Fuelled by suspicions that Turkey is supporting the Sunni militants, the Kurds held angry demonstrations on the Turkish-Syrian border at Mursitpinar

Protest: The growing Kurdish anger towards Ankara poses the biggest threat so far to a historic peace process initiated in 2012 by now President Tayyip Erdogan

The growing Kurdish anger towards Ankara poses the biggest threat so far to a historic peace process initiated in 2012 by now President Tayyip Erdogan, an effort to end a three-decade insurgency by militants pushing for greater Kurdish rights.

The conflict has killed 40,000 people, most of them Kurds.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said Ankara had violated a ceasefire, declared by its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan in March last year, by supporting Islamic State.

Commander Murat Karayilan declared the ceasefire 'finished' in an interview with a TV station close to the PKK this week.

While Kurdish politicians involved in the process have been more cautious, the allegations of Turkish support for Islamic State - strongly denied by Ankara - are widely believed by Kurds on both sides of the border.

'Turkey won't allow us to defend Kobani because they support ISIL,' said balaclava-clad Shirwan, 28, holding aloft the red-starred PKK flag as a crowd gathered to protest near the Mursitpinar border gate. 'Where is the peace process?'

Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan slammed the 'ingratitude' of protesters, noting that Turkey had taken in some 150,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing the Islamic State onslaught in a matter of just days.

'You have opened your gates, your heart, but on the other side some are constantly fuelling tensions. These are not good things for the peace process, they don't fit with the spirit of the process,' Akdogan said as the protests spread this week.

Another two ministers affirmed the government's commitment to the peace process on Friday and said it would not be sidelined by 'provocations'.

Two-way street: Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds flooded into Turkey to flee ISIS, while others have gone the other way to help fight against the terror group

Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds flooded into Turkey fleeing an onslaught by the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group that prompted an appeal for international intervention

'We have our own road map. We are leading the solution process, it's not being shaped by others who want to lead us,' Interior Minister Efkan Ala told reporters.

Kurdish suspicions about Ankara's relationship with Islamic State deepened after 46 Turkish hostages held for more than three months by the group were released on Saturday, with no shots fired and no ransom paid.

In an effort to lower the tensions, a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has spent the last week meeting PKK leaders in the mountains of northern Iraq and top Turkish government officials.

But in a subsequent statement it piled fresh pressure on the government, criticising it for failing to put mechanisms in place to enable the two sides to begin advanced negotiations.

Ankara is sensitive to the risk of the PKK edging towards fresh hostilities, 30 years after it took up arms to try to carve out an independent state in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

'The Kurdish political movement's abandonment of the peace process and resumption of hostilities in such a chaotic regional atmosphere could drag Turkey rapidly into deep instability,' said political commentator Rusen Cakir.

Kurdish protesters clash with Turkish police and soldiers at the Turkish-Syria border line near Kobani, Syria, during a protest against the Islamic State uprising

The siege by Islamic State of a largely Kurdish Syrian border town has become a rallying point for Turkey's Kurds, not just against the insurgents but the Turkish state

But he said it would not be logical for the PKK to resume fighting Turkey while involved in conflict in Syria and Iraq, where its fighters played an important role in saving thousands of people from the Yazidi sect fleeing an IS advance.

PKK guerrillas began withdrawing to bases in the mountains of northern Iraq in the summer of 2013 under the terms of the peace process, but those moves came to a halt amid militant accusations of Ankara foot dragging on reform.

Many of them fought in Iraq alongside Kurdish peshmerga fighters against IS last month, while their allies in Syria, the People's Defense Units (YPG), are on the frontline there.

The Kurds' role battling Islamic State has raised the PKK's profile, strengthening its hand in the peace process and making the ultimate goal of disarming the group look more remote.

The boost has triggered efforts to have it removed from lists of terrorist groups in the United States, European Union and Turkey, although such a prospect seems distant for now and fresh conflict in Turkey would end those hopes.

'A movement which resumed conflict with Turkey would risk losing most of the gains which were made by fighting against ISIL, leading to the alienation of those who have started getting closer to them,' Cakir wrote in Vatan newspaper.

The course of the peace process could be determined by the outcome of the conflict between the PKK and Islamic State.

Common ground: Allegations of Turkish support for the Islamic State - strongly denied by Ankara - are widely believed by Kurds on both sides of the border

'The ideal scenario for Ankara would be the PKK fighting ISIL and neither winning,' said Akin Unver, assistant professor at Kadir Has University. 'This way Turkey would be able to dictate its terms to an exhausted PKK in the peace process.'

The latest statement from the PKK leadership in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq ratcheted up its already fierce criticism of the Turkish government, accusing it of a 'declaration of war' on the Kurdish people.

'There is a big explosion of anger and rebellion against Turkey among all Kurdistan's people,' it said in a statement. 'Getting ISIL to attack a small autonomous region like Kobani which only has a frontier into Turkey was the final straw.'

But it will be Ocalan, serving a life sentence on the prison island of Imrali south of Istanbul, who has the final word on the future of the peace process, as PKK commander Karayilan acknowledged this week.

The HDP has applied to the authorities to meet Ocalan but it is not clear when that meeting will take place.

Erdogan has invested considerable political capital in the peace process, facing considerable nationalist opposition to negotiating with a group vilified for decades. He has also gained support for his efforts among conservative Kurds.

The government has pushed through language and cultural reforms to boost the rights of Kurds, who make up some 20 percent of the 77 million population, although Kurdish politicians are pushing for political autonomy and an amnesty for PKK fighters.

Erdogan's task has been complicated by growing Kurdish assertiveness in the southeast, where several Kurdish schools have opened without permission in a challenge to state authority in recent weeks.

PKK militants have also stepped up what Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has described as 'provocations' including kidnappings, the burning of vehicles and road closures aimed at sabotaging the peace process.

Homeless: Kurdish Syrian refugees carry their belongings on a cart after crossing the Turkish-Syrian border near Suruc to escape an advance by the Islamic State

The restiveness of Kurds hostile to the state has been raised a notch by the allegations of support for IS in Syria.

Some 12 km west of the Mursitpinar border in Syria, Kurdish and IS fighters exchanged fire in a week-long battle over the village of Siftek,as mostly Syrian Kurdish villagers watched from a hillside in Turkey.

'Turkey is supporting ISIL. They support them because they don't want the Kurds to be free,' Cuneyt Sohmet, a Kurdish activist from Turkey's Siirt province, said as gunfire echoed around the hills.

'But if they do that, peace in the region, peace in Turkey will not be possible.'

Thousands of Syrian refugees continued to pour across the border into Turkey to escape the Islamic State today as Ankara finally said it was prepared to take any measure necessary to ensure its own security in the fight against the terror group.

Men and women, the young, the old and the ill were today pictured carrying whatever belongings they could muster as they fled towards the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province.

The number of Syrians who have joined the exodus over the last week is now believed to have topped 160,000.

Turkey has for months frustrated the West with its distinctly low-key role in the campaign against the jihadists, but there have been signs over the last days it is shifting its approach.

'If any military operation or a solution carries the perspective of bringing peace and stability to the region, we will support it,' Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a meeting of his ruling party in Ankara.

'We will take whatever measures our national security requires,' he said, but without giving details about what such measures could entail.

Displaced: Men and women, the young, the old and the ill carried whatever belongings they could as they fled towards the Turkish town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province

Turkey is under pressure from the United States to play an active role in the broad coalition to defeat the jihadists, who have seized large swathes of territory in neighbouring Iraq and Syria.

IS militants have advanced on the mainly Kurdish Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, just a few kilometres south of the Turkish border.

Davutoglu said some 160,000 refugees have now fled from there into Turkey since barbaric Islamic State (IS) militants launched a new offensive to try to capture the border town of Kobani more than a week ago.

Ankara had justified its reticent co-operation by saying its priority was to save dozens of Turkish nationals abducted by IS in Iraq. But after its citizens were freed over the weekend, Ankara's tone has changed.

On Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed US-led air strikes against the militants in Syria, saying Ankara could provide military or logistical support for the air campaign.

But it still remains unclear how extensive Turkish involvement would be.

Davutoglu said Turkey would oppose any operation in the Middle East region that has the aim of controlling oil and other energy resources.

A key moment in determining further Turkish action could come on October 2 when parliament convenes to consider extending the scope of two existing mandates allowing the government to take military action in Syria and Iraq.

Reports have said the United States is pressing Turkey to allow US forces the use of the Incirlik air base for launching air raids on IS in northern Syria.

Erdogan, currently in the United States to attend the UN General Assembly, on Thursday held two hours of talks with US Vice President Joe Biden.

Flight to freedom: Some 140,000 refugees have fled over the Turkish border since ISIS launched a new offensive to try to capture the border town of Kobani a week ago

Yesterday, the Turkish military deployed tanks to the porous border with Syria, which is believed to be the main route for Western would-be jihadists to join up with IS and other extremist groups in the Middle East.

Turkish soldiers have been deployed to stem the relentless flow into their country - and also block Kurdish men from crossing in the opposite direction to fight against Islamic State militants.

The U.N. refugee agency said the first of eight planned aid flights landed in the southern Turkish city of Adana, carrying pre-fabricated warehouses, sleeping mats, plastic sheeting and cooking utensils to help Turkey cope with the influx.

Kurdish and Islamic State fighters exchanged artillery and machine gun fire in a cluster of villages about nine miles west of Kobani, where the frontline appeared not to have moved significantly for several days, a Reuters witness said.

Sad sight: An elderly woman holds a piece of bread as she sits on the ground after crossing the Turkish-Syrian border to flee the Islamic State

Kurdish officials meanwhile said Islamic State had concentrated their fighters south of the town late on Wednesday and had pushed towards it, but that the main Kurdish armed group in northern Syria, the YPG, had repelled them overnight.

'The YPG responded and pushed them back to about 10-15 km (six-nine miles) away,' Idris Nassan, deputy minister for foreign affairs in the Kobani canton, told news agency Reuters by telephone.

Syrian Kurdish refugees watching the fighting from a hill on the Turkish side of the border said the Islamic State insurgents had not been able to advance from positions they had taken up in olive groves west of Kobani.

Turkish military vehicles patrolled their side of the border, with soldiers occasionally moving people away from the hill overlooking the fighting. Heavy weapons fire could also be heard further away from the border inside Syrian territory.

The town's location has been blocking the Sunni Muslim insurgents from consolidating their gains in northern Syria. The group tried to take the town in July but was repulsed by local forces backed by Kurdish fighters from Turkey.

The YPG on Thursday renewed calls for U.S.-led air strikes to hit Islamic State positions around Kobani.

'Although all ISIS positions and their heavy armaments, including tanks and armoured vehicles around Kobani, are clear and within view for everyone on the front line, it is worth noting that these targets have not been bombed yet,' YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said.

'We are of the utmost readiness to cooperate with the international coalition forces against terrorism and give it detailed information about the main targets,' he said.

A Turkish soldier helps refugees carry their belongings across the border. Kurdish forces have appealed for U.S.-led air strikes to target ISIS's weaponry

A thin but steady stream of people continued to cross from Syria into Turkey at the Yumurtalik border crossing after it reopened on Thursday, with police carrying out security checks.

An estimated 1,300 people crossed into Turkey on Wednesday alone, and the total number since the fighting began near Kobani had risen to 144,000, according to the United Nations.

Turkey is already sheltering more than 1.3 million refugees from Syria.

The U.N. refugee agency was helping the Turkish authorities set up two new camps to cope with the influx, UNHCR spokeswoman Selin Unal said.

Turkey has been slow to join calls for a coalition to fight Islamic State in Syria, worried in part about links between Syrian Kurds and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group which waged a three-decade campaign against the Turkish state for greater Kurdish rights.

At least 140,000 Kurds have fled Kobani and surrounding villages since Friday, according to figures compiled by the United Nations

The PKK has called on Turkey's Kurds to join the fight to defend Kobani and accused Ankara of supporting Islamic State. Residents in the border area say hundreds of youths have done so, although Turkish security forces have been trying to keep them from crossing the frontier.

Turkey strongly denies it has given any form of support to the Islamist militants but Western countries say its open borders during Syria's three-year civil war allowed Islamic State and other radical groups to grow in power.

Ocalan Iso, a Kurdish defence official, confirmed that YPG forces had stemmed Islamic State's advances south of Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.

'As our fighters secured the area, we found 12 Islamic State bodies,' he said by telephone. Islamic State fighters also remain to the east and west of the town and fighting continues in the south.

Both men said they had also heard warplanes flying over Kobani late on Wednesday for the first time, but it was not clear exactly which areas they were targeting.

A third night of U.S.-led air strikes on Wednesday targeted Islamic State-controlled oil refineries in eastern Syria, U.S. officials said.