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Thousands of people trapped in a besieged Syrian border town face genocide by drug-crazed Islamic State terrorists.

This is the horrific reality described by the Kurds who have managed to flee into Turkey from Kobane, where the barbaric fanatics hold sway, despite coalition air strikes.

Terrified civilians are stuck in the town and in a no-man’s land between the outskirts and the border, which is closed to them.

Ekram Ahmet, 40, who fled Kobane with his wife and five children six days ago, told the Sunday People: “Many of the old people refuse to leave their sons to fight.

"Many have nowhere to go and many more are trapped between the town and the Turkish border – out in the open ­waiting for rescue or certain death.

“IS are animals. They’re not human. They have a bloodlust the like of which I’ve never seen – it’s as if they enjoy killing.

"They revel in cutting heads off – it’s like their trademark.”

(Image: Adnan Altin/East Med Media)

In a chilling account of life in the killing zone, Ekram explained many IS supporters are drug-crazed as they fight and kill, exhorting their barbaric massacre in the name of Allah.

“They are filthy, with straggly beards and long black nails.

“They have lots of pills with them that they all keep taking. It seems to make them more crazy if anything.

“They become agitated and excited, desperate to punish even children for the smallest thing.”

Locals believe pills found on dead IS soldiers are amphetamines, which fire up the fighters’ greed for killing.

Ekram added: “My 11-year-old son was dragged off a bus by IS. They found a copy of the Koran in his pocket that my wife had given him for luck.

“They ripped it to pieces and threw it on the floor. Realising he was Kurdish, they pushed him into a line to be taken away and beheaded.

“As the terrorists marched them off, they were distracted by incoming fire and my son seized his chance to run.

“He didn’t stop till he got home to find us burying the neighbours’ family. We fled Kobane straight after that.”

(Image: YouTube)

Engineer Ekram said IS, also known as Isis had been creeping towards Kobane for months.

“They’ve been in outlying villages and set up roadblocks,” he said. “They would stop cars and buses and kill any non-Muslims or Kurds.

“I can speak Arabic and managed to persuade them to spare me – many others weren’t so lucky.

“We stayed as long as we could, hoping for help, but little came. Last week my neighbour, a university professor, asked me to help bury his sister, two brothers and son.

“He was distraught as they had been beheaded and pleaded with me to help find their heads so they could be buried whole.

“We searched as best we could but were told IS had taken them as trophies.

“We buried the bodies and then I fled with my family to Turkey. As we crossed the border the Turkish soldiers jeered and insulted us. They called us ‘stupid people’ and ‘donkeys’. They seem to hate us more than they hate IS.”

But Ekram warned Turkey to be careful what they wish for.

“I know Turkey hates Kurds,” he said. “But they could end up with IS as neighbours, which would be far worse.

“Friends of mine in the Kurdish militia, YPG, had been firing on an IS position. They killed them all – or so they thought but when they checked, they found one badly injured, hit by seven bullets.

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"It was during the fast of Ramadan and he’d been fasting and begged the YPG to put him out of his misery so he could break his fast with the prophet Mohammed.

“They offered to let one of their women kill him but IS believe that to be killed by a woman is shameful and would prevent entry to paradise.

“The YPG told him he had no hope of reaching paradise and they wouldn’t waste a bullet on him.

“They said he could die slowly and take time to realise there was no place for him in paradise, he and all of them were going straight to hell.”

One young boy and his sister were stranded on the outskirts of Kobane five days ago when IS swept into town.

He and his sister hid in terror but the terrorists discovered the young girl then raped and killed her.

Fierce YPG fighters battled to retake the house and rescued the little boy who fell ­sobbing into their arms.

More than 150 children – from ­babies to teenagers – are sheltering in the garden of council offices in the Turkish border town of Suruc.

Filthy dirty, and sleeping outside on the floor, the children remained bright and resilient to their circumstances.

(Image: Adnan Altin/East Med Media)

Girls were playing babies with their real baby brothers and sisters and boys were playing catch with lumps of mud.

They happily talked to me, wanting English children to know their plight.

Rojdan, six, said: “It’s very cold at night. It’s too cold to sleep and the floor is hard. But the people gave us Turkish delight which was lovely.”

Alene, five, said: “I miss my daddy but he has to fight the bad people so we can go home.”

Duluvan, 13, added: “I haven’t spoken to my dad for a long time. He’s in Kobane fighting for our home. I pray for him – for all of our men but they need to kill all IS so we can ­return home safely.”

Some have been living in this garden for a month and every day more arrive.

Realising the desperate plight of these children, we asked them to raise their hand if their fathers were fighting in Kobane. One by one every hand went up.

The children all attended the same school in Kobane – called Yermuk – and all said they miss it very much.

They are desperate to return home but show the same defiance as their fathers.

As we finished talking they all stood and raised their hands in the traditional ­symbol of peace before chanting rousing Kurdish slogans, finishing off with a ­chorus of their national anthem – ­reducing the watching adults, including myself, to tears.

Today a thick fog lay like a blanket over Kobane preventing anxious Kurds being able to see the town from the ­border – but the sound of heavy arms and machine gun fire still filled the air.

(Image: Getty)

According to Kurdish reporter Murat Ciftcfi, 42, Kurdish fighters mounted their best defence of the town.

He said: “On Friday night groups of male YPG and women YPJ fighters ­resisted a fierce onslaught by IS.

“They are totally committed to fighting to the death to defend the town but they can’t match IS for weapons and they are heavily outnumbered.

"We have begged Turkey to open a safe corridor to allow the wounded and civilians to escape and to reinforce fighters in Kobane, but they refuse to help.”

Murat says Kurds welcome the air strikes and bombardment of IS positions.But he says that some are proving more effective than others.

He added: “Kurds say Arab planes seem less inclined to engage the enemy, instead just dumping bombs on fields and flying back to their bases. Their involvement is seen as mere tokenism.

“But the Kurds need real help and they need it now before IS wipe out all who remain in Kobane.”

US forces conducted six air strikes against IS militants near Kobane on Friday and Saturday, said the US Central Command.

Additionally, the American military chiefs said they carried out three strikes with the Dutch against targets in Iraq near Tal Afar and Hit on Friday.

US forces also revealed that they ­“conducted multiple airdrops to resupply Iraqi security forces at the request of the Iraqi Government”.

Supplies of food, water and ammunition were dropped around Baiji, close to where IS forces recently shot down two Iraqi helicopters.

IF you would like to help the children hit by the atrocities in Syria, go to www.savethechildren.org.uk/save-syria-children