The terrorists are using military equipment given to Iraq by the U.S.

Refugees say Isis has been beheading civilians and torching homes

Isis has been using heavy weaponry on those fleeing, say eye witnesses

They are mostly women, children and the elderly, according to the UNHCR

Riots have broken out between Kurds and Turkish security forces as the number of Syrians who have flooded into Turkey to escape Isis militants has reportedly reached 200,000,

Clashes broke out as Kurds trying to approach the crossing from inside Turkey to take part in solidarity demonstrations with Syrians fought with security forces, who responded with tear gas, paint pellets and water cannons.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the Kurdish protesters had hurled stones at the security forces.

Two people were seriously injured in the clashes, including one Kurdish politician who was taken to hospital, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions' Party said.

Desperate to fight: Meanwhile, Kurdish protesters clashed with Turkish riot police as they attemped to pass the Turkey-Syria border to support Syrian Kurdish fighters (PYD) against Islamic State militants

Measures: Riot police use teargas to disperse Kurdish demonstrators who were clashing with Turkish security forces as thousands of Syrian refugees continue to arrive at the border in Suruc, Turkey

Stand off: A Kurdish woman runs away from a water cannon as she tried to get in to Syria to fight IS

Fight by any means: The refugee crisis has brought Turkey even nearer to the war being waged by Isis

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims 200,000 have fled the war-torn region, and terrorists have been firing on those fleeing with heavy weaponry including rocket launchers, according to eyewitnesses.

Most of them are Kurdish women, children and the elderly, and their arrival since Thursday has pushed the conflict close to the Turkish border, with one crossing closed to prevent Kurdish fighters crossing into Syria to join the battle against Isis.

Much of the terrorist group's heavy weaponry has been stolen from the Iraqi military, and was supplied by the U.S.

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Burning issue: A car burns as Kurdish protesters desperate to get into Syria continue to clash with Turkish soldiers

A Kurdish protestor throws a firework at a Turkish armoured vehicle during the clashes

Firing tear gas: Riot police use tear gas to disperse Kurdish demonstrators

Many of the Kurds fighting Turkish troops were young boys armed with little more than slingshots and stones

Even children arrived at the border carrying heavy sacks of food and water

Fleeing terror: The number of Syrians who have flooded into Turkey to escape Isis militants has reached 200,000

Moving: A soldier comforts a little boy after he crossed the border with his family

Lucky ones: Syrian Kurds carry their belongings after crossing in to Turkey near the Syrian border

Young and old: Most of the refugees are Kurdish women, children and the elderly who have been forced to walk many miles through searing desert heat to reach the Turkish border

Exhausted: Some have travelled so far that they simply could not continue and had to be dragged, carried or supported by family

Huge crisis: The Refugee Council described the diaspora as 'the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War'

Relief: Syrian Kurds walk after crossing into Turkey at the Turkish-Syrian border

Escape: At a border crossing where Turkish authorities were processing the refugees, Osman Abbas (not pictured) said he and 20 relatives were fleeing a village near Kobani when IS fighters shot one of his sons

End of a journey: Despite the huge number of new refugees, Turkish authorities said they were ready to deal with the influx. The conflict has pushed more than a million Syrians over the border

Long wait: A Syrian refugee family waits near the Turkish-Syrian border for the green light to enter Turkey

Isis, also known as the Islamic State (IS) is the al Qaeda breakaway group which has established a caliphate, ruled by its harsh version of Islamic law, in territory it captured straddling the Syria-Iraq border.

It has in recent days advanced into Kurdish regions of Syria that border Turkey, where fleeing refugees reported atrocities that included stonings, beheadings and the torching of homes.

Anna Musgrave, advocacy manager for the Refugee Council, described the growing Syrian diaspora as 'the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War'.

'Countries like Turkey which surround Syria have not had the luxury of choice about the numbers of refugees they offer safe haven to,' she added.

'We must stand alongside Syria's neighbours by opening our doors to refugees fleeing the area.'

As refugees flooded in, Turkey closed the border crossing at Kucuk Kendirciler to Turkish Kurds in a move aimed at preventing them from joining the fight in Syria, along with several other crossing points

She added: 'The UK should urgently expand its resettlement scheme for refugees from Syria. Surely our compassion should extend to helping more than 'several hundred people' over three years.

'How can we ask Syria's neighbours to keep their borders open to refugees if we won't help share some of the responsibility?'

Yesterday, heavy clashes broke out between IS militants and Kurdish fighters only miles from the Syrian border town of Ain al-Arab, a strategic Kurdish safe haven also known as Kobani.

The IS was bombarding villagers with tanks, artillery and multiple rocket launchers, said Nasser Haj Mansour, a defence official in Syria's Kurdish region.

'They are even targeting civilians who are fleeing,' He said.

Speaking of his decision to flee, Sahab Basravi said: 'When the Daesh (IS) attacked Ain al-Arab, we were frightened. They said in the mosques that they could kill all Kurds between seven and 77 years old. So we collected our things and left, immediately.'

At a border crossing where Turkish authorities were processing the refugees, Osman Abbas said he and 20 relatives were fleeing a village near Kobani when IS fighters shot one of his sons.

Syrians gathering on the Turkish-Syrian border after fleeing from the clashes between Isis and Democratic Union Party (PYD) forces in the Tal Abyad district of Syria's Ar-Raqqah Governorate

Syrians wait at the coordination center set up by the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency on the Turkish-Syrian border

Syrian Kurds carry belongings as they cross the border between Syria and Turkey

A Syrian Kurdish girl cries after they could not enter with their goats between Syria and Turkey near the southeastern town of Suruc

The 35-year-old had tried to return to their home to recover valuables while the rest of the family fled.

'They took our village, they took our house, they killed my son,' he said. 'I saw it with my own eyes.'

Mustefa Ebdi, a Kobani resident, local journalist and activist, said the streets of his town - once home to about 50,000 people - were virtually empty.

As refugees flooded in, Turkey closed the border crossing at Kucuk Kendirciler to Turkish Kurds in a move aimed at preventing them from joining the fight in Syria, along with several other crossing points.

Only two posts remain open, and the interior ministry will now register new arrivals.



A day earlier, hundreds of Kurdish fighters had poured into Syria through the small Turkish village, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Terrorist group Isis have launched attacks against the strategic Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria, forcing thousands of civilians to flee north to Turkey

A man carries an elderly Syrian Kurd after they crossed the border between Syria and Turkey

Desperate: A Syrian Kurdish refugee woman at the border in Suruc, Turkey

Kurdish protesters clash with Turkish soldiers near the Syrian border after Turkish authorities temporarily closed the crossing

Two people were seriously injured in the clashes, including one Kurdish politician who was taken to hospital, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions' Party said

A Kurdish protester prepares to hurl back a tear-gas cannister at the Syria-Turkey border

'CUT OFF THEIR HEADS': ISIS COMMANDER CALLS FOR MORE ATTACKS ON EGYPTIAN MILITARY Islamic State called on insurgents in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Monday to press ahead with attacks against Egyptian security forces and continue beheadings, an announcement likely to deepen concerns over ties between the militant groups. 'Rig the roads with explosives for them. Attack their bases. Raid their homes. Cut off their heads. Do not let them feel secure,' IS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said in a statement released online. Advertisement

Despite the huge number of new refugees, Turkish authorities said they were ready to deal with the influx. The conflict has pushed more than a million Syrians over the border.

'We have been prepared for this,' said Dogan Eskinat, a spokesman for Turkey's disaster management agency. 'We are also prepared for worse.'

The SOHR said IS has taken control of 64 villages in northern Syria since the fighting began there on Wednesday.

It says that the fate of 800 Kurds from these villages is unknown, adding that IS had killed at least 11 civilians, including two boys.

The Aleppo Media Centre, another activist group, said yesterday's battles were concentrated on the southern and eastern suburbs of Kobani.

Selin Unal, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said most of those coming across the border are Kurdish women, children and the elderly.

She urged the international community to step up aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey.

'Turkey is assisting with all needs but it's huge numbers,' she said.

Kurdish protesters threw stones at Turkish security forces (top left)

Syrian refugees wait near the Turkish-Syrian border after fleeing Syria. They have arrived with reports of atrocities carried out by Isis on civilians, including beheadings

Surge in suicide bombings kills 40 Iraqi soldiers while 68 are captured by ISIS

A wave of suicide bombings by Islamic State militants in western Iraq has killed 40 soldiers amid waning efforts by security forces to retake territory from the Sunni extremist group, a senior Iraqi commander said today.

The attacks, which occurred on Sunday in the town of Sijir, 43 miles west of Baghdad, dealt a heavy blow to government efforts to rein in the militants whose rampage has seized much of the country's north and west this summer - even as Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters are starting to get training by Iraq's Western allies in the battle against the Islamic State group.

In addition to the 40 troops killed in the suicide bombings, 68 Iraqi soldiers were apparently captured by the Islamic State group in Sijir and have likely been taken to the nearby city of Fallujah, said Gen. Rasheed Fleih.

There has been no communication with any of the soldiers since their capture Sunday, Fleih said.

A wave of suicide bombings by militants in western Iraq has killed 40 soldiers. Pictured, ISIS fighters

The militants launched the massive wave of attacks, involving several suicide bombings on the Iraqi troops stationed in Sijir on Sunday, sparking clashes, said a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Following the attacks, the Iraqi military withdrew 700 more troops stationed in the area, he added.

Following their battlefield successes in both Iraq and neighboring Syria, fighters with the Islamic State group - among them many Iraqi nationals - re-entered Iraq through the country's western Anbar province, engaging in fierce battles with the Iraqi military.

In this Sunni-majority territory, the group quickly capitalised on long-standing grievances against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, earning support from local populations.

Terror: A member loyal to IS with a flag in Raqqa June 29, 2014. The offshoot of al Qaeda has captured swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria has declared itself an Islamic 'Caliphate'

Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, were able to retake the strategic Mosul Dam and several small towns since airstrikes began. However, serious challenges remain, since many of the Islamic State fighters have taken refuge in busy cities with high civilian populations, such as Fallujah and Mosul.

In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters battling the Sunni militant group have begun receiving training from Western allies, including the United States, as they seek to beef up their capabilities, a top Kurdish security official said Monday.

Helgurd Hikmet, general director of the ministry overseeing Kurdish military forces known as peshmerga, said that France, Italy and Germany are also among countries providing training to help Kurdish forces use new machine guns, mortars, rockets and demining robots they have received.

'We asked all our allies, when they provided us with new weapons, that these weapons need training,' Hikmet told The Associated Press. 'So now all the allies that provided us with those weapons are providing us with training.'

The U.S. launched airstrikes and humanitarian missions in August to aid Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq.

Last week, the French joined in the aerial campaign. A number of European countries have also committed to arming the Kurds and providing humanitarian support for more than a million people displaced by the onslaught of the Islamic State group.

U.S. forces working with the peshmerga are part of the advise-and-assist teams that have been in Irbil, the provincial capital of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region, for several weeks. The U.S. has also provided equipment against roadside bombs and other sophisticated artillery to the Kurdish fighters.

After seizing Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, in June, militants with the Islamic State group waged an aggressive offensive across northern Iraq, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes and coming dangerously close to heavily populated cities in Iraq's Kurdish region.

Meanwhile, a bombing and a shooting on Monday killed seven people in and around the capital, Baghdad. A bomb went off at midday in a commercial street in Baghdad's southwestern district of Bayaa, killing four people and wounding 13, according to police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.