A Syrian woman and her two young sons who drowned on a desperate voyage from Turkey to Greece were buried in their hometown of Kobani, returning to the conflict-torn Syrian Kurdish region they had fled.

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The father of two toddlers who drowned with their mother and several other migrants as they tried to reach Greece identified their bodies yesterday and prepared to take them back to their home town of Kobani.

The family of two small boys whose bodies washed up on a Turkish beach were Syrian refugees who had been trying to emigrate to Canada, according to reports.

Prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has rejected accusations that Turkey previously tacitly supported Islamic State (IS) militants operating from Syria and unwittingly opened the door to a suicide bombing that killed at least 32 people.

An explosion rocked the Turkish city of Suruc near the Syrian border, killing 30 people and wounding nearly 100 others in what Turkish authorities said appeared to be an Islamic State-inspired suicide bombing.

An explosion has killed at least 10 people and injured dozens more in the south-eastern Turkish city of Suruc, near the Syrian border.

IS militants in Syria have stormed government-held neighbourhoods in the predominantly Kurdish north-eastern city of Hassakeh, capturing several areas.

Kurdish forces in Iraq are investigating two other possible chemical weapons attacks by the Islamic State group, a top official has said.

Islamic State militants have abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in north-eastern Syria, a monitoring group that tracks violence in Syria said.

Syria warns of ‘aggression’ as 40 Turkish troops brought home

Kurdish forces have taken full control of the Syrian town of Kobani, driving out remaining Islamic State fighters to end a four-month battle that became a focal point of the international fight against the ultra-hardline Islamist group.

Lebanon began limiting the flow of Syrians entering the country yesterday, placing unprecedented restrictions on their entry, as it struggles to cope with a flood of asylum seekers fleeing civil war.

Two former British soldiers who travelled to Syria to fight against Islamic State say they made plans to kill themselves if they were captured by the militants.

The Islamic State group launched an attack today on the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey, a Kurdish official and activists said, although Turkey denied that the fighters had used its territory for the raid.

Ethnic Kurds are helping members of the Islamic State in the battle for the key Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, sharing their knowledge of the local terrain and language with the extremists, according to Iraqi and Kurdish officials.

A UN report says the world is facing a challenge of foreign fighters in terror groups on an "unprecedented scale", with about 15,000 in Syria and Iraq alone.

Ten Iraqi peshmerga fighters have entered Kobani, the first of a group of 150 Kurdish troops on their way into the embattled Syrian border town, activists said.

For the first time since the Islamic State group launched an offensive on the Syrian border town of Kobani last month, a small group of Syrian rebels yesterday entered the town from Turkey in a push to help Kurdish fighters there battle the militants, activists and Kurdish officials said.

A small group of Syrian rebels have entered the embattled border town of Kobani to help Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State (IS) extremists, according to reports.

Fighters from the Islamic State group have launched a new offensive on the northern Syrian town of Kobani after shelling the area from their positions nearby, activists said.

Turkey is to allow hundreds of Syrian rebels to head to the embattled town of Kobani along the Syrian-Turkish border to help Kurdish fighters in the battle against Islamic State militants.

US-led coalition air strikes on Syria have killed more than 500 people, mainly Islamic militants, since they began last month, activists said as fighting flared in the northern Syrian border town of Kobani.

Turkey’s foreign minister said his country is helping Iraqi Kurdish forces cross into the Syrian border town of Kobani "to give support" to fellow Kurdish fighters defending the town against Islamic State militants.

Turkey’s top diplomat has announced that his country is helping Iraqi Kurdish fighters cross into Syria to “give support” to fellow Kurds defending the border town of Kobani from Islamic State militants.

The US military has airdropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish forces defending the Syrian city of Kobani against Islamic State militants.

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President Barack Obama and military chiefs from more than 20 nations gathered in a show of strength against Islamic State (IS) fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey will let US and coalition forces use its bases for attacks against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq, American defence sources have said.

America wants to know how far Turkey is willing to go in helping train and equip moderate opposition fighters trying to topple Syrian president Bashar Assad, including whether it will conduct training on its own land, US defence secretary Chuck Hagel has said.

Thousands of people "will most likely be massacred" if Kobani falls to Islamic State fighters, a UN envoy said, as militants fought deeper into the besieged Syrian Kurdish town in full view of Turkish tanks that have done nothing to intervene.

The US-led coalition has intensified its aerial bombardment of Islamic State (IS) positions in the Syrian border town of Kobani as the extremist group fought street battles with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements.

The US-led coalition intensified its aerial bombardment of Islamic State positions in the Syrian border town of Kobani yesterday as the extremist group fought street battles with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements.

The US-led coalition intensified its aerial bombardment of Islamic State positions in the Syrian border town of Kobani today as the extremist group fought street battles with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements.

At least 21 people were killed in riots across Turkey, the deadliest street unrest in years, after the Kurdish minority rose up in fury at the government’s refusal to protect a besieged Syrian Kurdish town from Islamic State.

US and coalition air strikes have forced some Islamic State militants out of the Syrian border town of Kobani, but it may yet fall under the extremists’ control because air power alone cannot prevent it, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Islamic State fighters are poised to capture a strategic Syrian border town, Turkey’s president has warned, even as Kurdish forces battled to expel the extremists from their footholds on the outskirts.

Turkey’s president said Kobani was "about to fall" after Islamic State fighters advanced into the south west of the Syrian Kurdish town, pressing home a three-week assault that has cost a reported 400 lives.

Planes believed to have been sent by the US-led coalition have struck positions held by Islamic State militants near a Syrian border town that beleaguered Kurdish forces have been struggling to defend.

Warplanes believed to have been sent by the US-led coalition struck positions held by Islamic State militants near a Syrian border town that beleaguered Kurdish forces have been struggling to defend.

Islamic State fighters backed by tanks and artillery have pushed into an embattled Syrian town on the border with Turkey, sparking heavy street battles with the town’s Kurdish defenders.

Street fighting raged between Kurdish defenders and Islamic State militants who advanced into Kobani yesterday after subjecting the Syrian border town to an assault lasting almost three weeks, a monitoring group said.

Twin bombings near an elementary school in Syria killed at least 22 people, including at least 10 children, with the second blast going off as screaming parents frantically searched for their sons and daughters.

US-led air strikes have targeted Syrian oil installations held by the Islamic State group, killing nearly 20 people, as the militants released dozens of detainees in their de facto capital, activists said.