The international community, including Australia, should "order" the Turkish military to cross the border into Syria to prevent a looming massacre of Kurdish civilians, the ethnic group's diplomatic representative in Australia says.

Haval Syan, who speaks for authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, said there were only hours to act to avoid genocide.

In what is looming as one of the most dangerous moments of the war with Islamic State, the group's fighters battled their way into the major border town of Kobane – a strategic point that would give the militants control over large areas of northern Syria.

"The international community, they have to take action very immediately at least to stop a genocide in Kobane. This is very, very important ... I'm talking about hours. A day is too late because the situation is very hard now," Mr Haval said in an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media.