Turkey steps up border security to confront IS

Turkey tried to strengthen security measures along the Turkish-Syrian border so as to confront threats from the Islamic State (IS) militant organisation in Syria by sending a dozen of military tanks to its southeastern part, a media report said Friday.

A military convoy including 15 tanks on trucks started moving to the southeastern Turkey, using the Trans-European Motorway (TEM) , Xinhua reported.

As clashes between the IS militants and Syrian Kurds continue to rage in the border town of Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, northern Syria has been subject to ferocious attacks by the Sunni militants over the past three weeks.

The IS has succeeded in capturing hundreds of Kurdish villages around Kobane, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.

Turkey has opened its doors to 200,000 people following assaults by the IS on Kobane, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, stressing that there are 130,000 (Syrian) refugees in Europe while Turkey alone hosts 1.5 million.

On Oct 2, Turkish parliament passed a motion to authorise cross-border military actions in Syria and Iraq, joining the US- led anti-terror coalition that is carrying out a mission in Syria against IS positions and like-minded groups.

The decision grants the Turkish government a one-year mandate to send Turkish armed forces "to foreign countries for cross- border operations and interventions and to position foreign militaries in Turkey for the same purposes".

However, the Syrian foreign ministry slammed the decision, calling it an act of violent aggression against Syria.