Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has travelled to the country’s border with Syria, where was being briefed on Turkey’s military offensive against the Syrian Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin.

The West’s failure to support Kurdish independence will condemn this people to further oppression by hostile forces, writes Shlomo Avineri.

Iraqi Kurdish forces have abandoned their positions outside Kirkuk's airport, and civilians are fleeing in large numbers as federal forces close in on the disputed city following an overnight attack from the south.

Iraqi Kurds were going to the polls on Monday to vote on whether to support independence from Baghdad in a historic but non-binding referendum that has raised regional tensions and fears of instability.

Iraqi Kurds were going to the polls on Monday to vote on whether to support independence from Baghdad in a historic but non-binding referendum that has raised regional tensions and fears of instability.

A string of bombings, blamed on Kurdish rebels and targeting Turkey’s security forces, killed at least 11 people and wounded 226 others.

Turkey has lashed out at Kurdish targets, bombing military positions in northern Iraq and rounding up dozens of militants at home after a suicide car bombing in Ankara.

Kurdish peshmerga fighters say they have liberated much of the Iraqi town of Sinjar from the group calling itself Islamic State (ISIL).

Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by the US-led air campaign, launched an assault aiming to retake the strategic town of Sinjar from the Islamic State (IS) group.

Two women opened fire yesterday at the heavily protected US consulate in Istanbul, while assailants exploded a car bomb at a police station then fired on police inspecting the scene.

Turkish jets hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq and the government said strikes would continue until the rebels lay down their arms, despite calls earlier by the pro-Kurdish opposition for an immediate end to the violence and the resumption of peace efforts.

A twin bombing attack targeting Kurds celebrating their new year has killed and wounded dozens of people in Syria, state media and activists said.

Syrian Kurds battled to defend a key border town from an Islamic State advance as Kurdish youths from neighbouring Turkey rushed to their aid, heightening the pressure on Ankara to act against the Islamist insurgents.